THE 

AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE 


A   ROMANCE 

OF 

CONTEMPORANEOUS  ANTIQUITY 


BY 
THOMAS    A.  JANVIER 

ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 


BOOKS  BY 
THOMAS  A.  JANVIER 

[PUBLISHED  BY  HARPER  &  BROTHERS] 

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Copyright,  1890,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

FRINTEP    IN    THE    UNITED    STAT£9    OF    AMFR|C/\ 


TO 

0.  A.  J, 


Departimiento  y  ha  entre  los  enganos.  Catales  y  ha  que  son 
buenos,  e  tales  que  malos,  e  buenos  son  aquellos  que  los  omnes  fazen 
a  buena  f e  e  a  buena  intention. — ALONZO  EL  SABIO,  Setena  Partida, 
Titulo  xvi.,  Ley  ii. 


CONTENTS. 


PADS. 

PROLOGUE 13 

I.   FRAY  ANTONIO 16 

n.  THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET 28 

in.  THE  MONK'S  MANUSCRIPT 43 

iv.  MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER 53 

V.  THE  ENGINEER  AND  THE  LOST-FREIGHT   MAN  .       .  67 

VI.  THE   KING'S  SYMBOL 78 

VII.   THE  FIGHT   IN   THE    CANON 92 

VIII.  AFTER   THE  FIGHT 100 

IX.   THE    CAVE   OF  THE  DEAD 109 

X.   THE   SWINGING    STATUE 119 

XI.   THE    SUBMERGED   CITY 129 

XII.   IN   THE   VALLEY  OF   DEATH 140 

XIII.    UP  THE  CHAC-MOOL  STAIR 152 

XIV.  THE  HANGLNG  CHAIN 161 

XV.   THE  TEMPLE   IN  THE    CLOUDS 174 

XVI.   AT  THE   BARRED  PASS 181 

XVII.   OF  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN     .  198 

XVIII.   THE   STRIKING  OF  A  MATCH 208 

XIX.  THE    SEEDS   OF  REVOLT 218 

XX.  THE  PRIEST  CAPTAIN'S  SUMMONS 229 

XXI.   THE  WAXLED  CITY  OF    CULHUACAN      .             .      .  239 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

XXII.   THE   OUTBREAK   OF   REVOLUTION  ......  252 

XXIII.  A  RESCUE 264 

XXIV.  THE  AFFAIR   AT  THE   WATER-GATE 275 

XXV.  THE    GOLD-MINERS  OF  HUITZILAN 286 

XXVI.  THE  GATHERING  FOR  WAR 297 

XXVII.   AN  OFFER  OF  TERMS 308 

XXVIII.    THE  SURRENDER  OF   A   LIFE 320 

XXIX.  THE   ASSAULT  IN  THE   NIGHT 328 

XXX.   THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITADEL 340 

XXXI.    DEFEAT 348 

XXXII.   EL  SABIO'S  DEFIANCE 359 

XXXIII.  IN  THE  AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE 373 

XXXIV.  A  MARTYRDOM 386 

XXXV.  THE  TREASURE-CHAMBER 398 

XXXVI.  THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  GODS 410 

XXXVII.  THROUGH  DARKNESS    TO   LIGHT 421 

xxxviii.  KING  CHALTZANTZIN'S  TREASURE 430 

EPILOGUE  .  439 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTBATIONS. 


THE  DYING   CACIQUE Frontispiece 

THE   LETTER   FROM   THE   DEAD Facing  p.   54 

PACKING   IN   THE   CORRAL "  82 

THE  FIGHT  IN  THE  CANON "  98 

THE  CAVE  OF  THE  DEAD "  112 

AFLOAT  ON  THE  LAKE "  138 

EL  SABIO'S  PREDICAMENT "  172 

MAKING  THE  PEACE-SIGN "  196 

THE  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  PROPHECY "  204 

THE  STRIKING  OF  A  MATCH "  214 

CHECKING  YOUNG'S  OUTBREAK "  258 

THE  LEAP  FROM  ABOVE  THE  WATER-GATE  ...  "  282 

THE  LAST  RALLY "  334 

EL  SABIO'S  DEFIANCE "  372 

FRAY  ANTONIO'S  APPEAL "  394 

YOUNG'S  STRUGGLE  WITH  THE   PRIEST  CAPTAIN      .  "  412 


Who'd  hear  great  marvels  told— 

Come  listen  now! 
Who  longs  for  hidden  gold — 

Come  listen  now! 
Who  joys  in  icell-fought  fights, 
Who  yearns  for  wondrous  sights, 
Who  pants  for  strange  delights — 

Come  listen  now! 

For  here  are  marvels  told 

To  listen  to! 
Here  tales  of  hidden  gold 

To  listen  to! 

Here  gallant  men  wage  fights, 
Here  pa-ss  most  wondrous  sights, 
Here's  that  which  ear  delights 

To  listen  to! 


THE  AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 


PROLOGUE. 

"GoD  sends  nuts  to  them  who  have  no  teeth:" 
which  ancient  Spanish  proverb  of  contrariety  comes 
strongly  to  my  mind  as  I  set  myself  to  this  writing. 

By  nature  am  I  a  studious,  book-loving  man,  having 
a  strong  liking  for  quiet  and  orderliness.  Yet  in  me 
also  is  a  strain  that  urges  me,  even  along  ways  which 
are  both  rough  and  dangerous,  to  get  beyond  book- 
knowledge,  and  to  examine  for  myself  the  abstractions 
of  thought  and  the  concretions  of  men  and  things  out 
of  the  consideration  whereof  books  are  made.  And  I 
hold  that  it  is  because  I  have  thus  sought  for  truth  in 
its  original  sources,  instead  of  resting  content  with 
what  passes  for  truth,  being  detached  fragments  of 
fact  which  other  men  have  found  and  have  cut  and 
polished  to  suit  themselves,  that  I  have  gathered  to 
myself  more  of  it,  and  in  its  rude  yet  perfect  native 
crystals,  than  has  come  into  the  possession  of  any 
other  modern  investigator.  In  making  which  strong 
assertion  I  am  not  moved  by  idle  vanity,  but  by  a  just 
and  reasonable  conception  of  the  intrinsic  merit  of 
my  own  achievement :  as  will  be  universally  admitted 


14  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

when  I  publish  the  great  work,  now  almost  ready  for 
the  press,  upon  which,  in  preparatory  study  and  in 
convincing  discovery,  I  have  been  for  the  past  ten 
years  engaged.  For  I  speak  well  within  bounds  when 
I  declare  that  a  complete  revolution  in  all  existing 
conceptions  of  American  archaeology  and  ethnology 
will  be  wrought  when  Pre-Columbian  Conditions  on 
the  Continent  of  North  America,  by  Professor  Thomas 
Palgrave,  Ph.D.  (Leipsic),  is  given  to  the  world. 

Upon  this  work  I  say  that  I  have  been  engaged  for 
ten  years.  Rather  should  I  say  that  I  have  been  en 
gaged  upon  it  for  forty  years ;  for  its  germs  were  im 
planted  in  me  when  I  was  a  child  of  but  six  years  old. 
Before  my  intelligence  at  all  could  grasp  the  meaning 
of  what  I  read,  my  imagination  was  fired  by  reading 
in  the  pages  of  Stephens  of  the  wonders  which  that 
eminent  explorer  discovered  in  Yucatan  ;  and  my  mind 
then  was  made  up  that  I  would  follow  in  his  footsteps, 
and  in  the  end  go  far  beyond  him,  until  I  should  re 
veal  the  whole  history  of  the  marvellous  race  whose 
mighty  works  he  found,  but  of  whose  genesis  he  could 
only  feebly  surmise.  And  this  resolve  of  the  child  be 
came  the  dominant  purpose  of  the  man.  In  my  col 
lege  life  at  Harvard,  and  in  my  university  life  at 
Leipsic,  my  studies  were  directed  chiefly  to  this  end. 
Especially  did  I  devote  myself  to  the  acquisition  of 
languages,  and  to  gaining  a  sound  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  those  departments  of  archaeology  and 
ethnology  which  related  to  the  great  work  that  I  had 
in  view.  Later,  during  the  ten  years  that  I  occupied 
fas  I  believe  usefully  and  acceptably)  the  Chair  gf 


PROLOGUE.  15 

Topical  Linguistics  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  all 
the  time  that  I  properly  could  take  from  my  profes 
sorial  duties  was  given  exclusively  to  the  study  of  the 
languages  of  the  indigenous  races  of  Mexico,  and  to 
what  little  was  to  be  found  in  books  concerning  their 
social  organization  and  mode  of  life,  and  to  the  broad 
subject  of  Mexican  antiquities.  By  correspondence  I 
became  acquainted  with  the  most  eminent  Mexican 
archaeologists  —  the  lamented  Orozco  y  Berra,  Icaz- 
balceta,  Chavero,  and  the  philologists  Pimentel  and 
Peiiafiel ;  and  I  had  the  honor  to  know  personally  the 
American  archaeologist  Bandelier,  the  surpassing  scien 
tific  value  of  whose  researches  among  the  primitive 
peoples  of  Mexico  places  his  work  above  all  praise. 
And  by  the  study  of  the  writings  of  these  great  schol 
ars,  and  of  all  writings  thereto  cognate,  my  own  knowl 
edge  steadily  grew ;  until  at  last  I  felt  myself  strong 
enough  to  begin  the  investigations  on  my  own  account 
for  which  I  had  sought  by  all  these  years  of  patient 
preparation  fittingly  to  pave  the  way. 

But  inasmuch  as  my  life  until  a  short  time  since  has 
been  wholly  that  of  a  scholar,  and  wholly  has  been 
passed  in  quiet  ways,  I  truly  have  had  no  teeth  at  all 
for  the  proper  cracking  of  the  nuts  which  have  come 
to  me  in  the  course  of  the  surprising  adventures  that  I 
have  now  set  myself  to  narrate.  For  in  the  course  of 
these  adventures  (necessarily,  yet  sorely  against  my 
will)  I  have  been  thrust  by  force  of  circumstances  into 
many  imminent  and  prodigious  perils ;  much  time  that 
I  gladly  would  have  devoted  to  peaceful,  fruitful  study 
I  have  been  compelled  to  employ  in  rude  and  profitless 


16  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

(except  that  my  life  was  saved  by  it)  battling  with 
savages;  and — what  most  of  all  has  pained  me — many 
curious  and  interesting  skulls  that  I  gladly  would  have 
added  entire  to  my  collection  of  crania,  I  have  been 
driven  in  self-defence  to  ruin  irreparably  with  my  own 
hands. 

All  of  which  diversities  of  my  likings  and  my  hap 
penings  will  appear  in  due  order,  as  I  tell  in  the  follow 
ing  pages  of  the  strange  and  wonderful  things  which 
befell  me — in  company  with  Rayburn  and  Young  and 
Fray  Antonio  and  the  boy  Pablo — in  our  search  after 
and  finding  of  the  great  treasure  that  was  hidden,  in  a 
curiously  secret  place  among  the  Mexican  mountains 
more  than  a  thousand  years  ago,  by  Chaltzantzin,  the 
third  of  the  Aztec  kings. 


I. 

FRAY    ANTONIO. 

MY  heart  was  light  within  me  as  I  stood  on  the 
steamer's  deck  in  the  cool  gray  of  an  October  morn 
ing,  and  saw  out  across  the  dark  green  sea  and  the 
dusky,  brownish  stretch  of  coast  country  the  snow- 
crowned  peak  of  Orizaba  glinting  in  the  first  rays  of 
the  rising  sun.  And  presently,  as  the  sun  rose  higher, 
all  the  tropic  region  of  the  coast  and  the  brown  walls 
of  Vera  Cruz  and  of  its  outpost  fort  of  San  Juan  de 
Ulua  were  flooded  with  brilliant  light — which  sudden 
and  glorious  outburst  of  radiant  splendor  seemed  to 


FKAY    ANTONIO.  17 

me  to  be  charged  with  a  bright  promise  of  my  own 
success. 

And  still  lighter  was  my  heart,  a  week  later,  when 
I  found  myself  established  in  the  beautiful  city  of  Mo- 
relia,  and  ready  to  begin  actively  the  work  for  which 
I  had  been  preparing  myself — at  first  unconsciously, 
but  for  ten  years  past  consciously  and  carefully — al 
most  all  my  life  long. 

Morelia,  I  had  decided,  was  the  best  base  for  the 
operations  that  I  was  about  to  undertake.  My  main 
purpose  was  to  search  for  the  remnants  of  primitive 
civilization  among  the  more  isolated  of  the  native 
Indian  tribes  ;  and  out  of  the  fragments  thus  found, 
pieced  together  with  what  more  I  could  glean  from 
the  early  ecclesiastical  and  civil  records,  to  recreate, 
so  far  as  this  was  possible,  the  fabric  that  was  de 
stroyed  by  the  Spanish  conquerors.  Nowhere  could 
my  investigations  be  conducted  to  better  advantage 
than  in  the  State  of  Michoacan  (of  which  State  the 
city  of  Morelia  is  the  capital)  and  in  the  adjacent 
State  of  Jalisco  ;  for  in  this  region  tribes  still  exist 
which  never  have  been  reduced  to  more  than  nominal 
subjection,  and  which  maintain  to  a  great  extent  their 
primitive  customs  and  their  primitive  faith,  though 
curiously  mingling  with  this  latter  many  Christian  ob 
servances.  Indeed,  the  independence  of  the  Indians 
of  these  parts  is  so  notable  that  the  proverb  "  Free  as 
Jalisco "  is  current  throughout  Mexico.  Moreover, 
Morelia  is  a  city  rich  in  ancient  records.  The  archives 
of  the  Franciscan  province,  that  has  its  centre  here, 
extend  back  to  the  year  1531  ;  those  of  the  Bishopric 
2 


18  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

of  Michoacan  to  the  year  1538  ;  and  those  of  the  Co- 
legio  de  San  Nicolas  to  the  year  1540  ;  while  in  the  re 
cently  founded  Museo  Michoacano  already  has  been 
collected  a  rich  store  of  archaeological  material.  In  a 
word,  there  was  no  place  in  all  Mexico  where  my  stud 
ies  and  my  investigations  could  be  pursued  to  such 
advantage  as  they  could  be  pursued  here. 

From  a  fellow-archaeologist  in  the  City  of  Mexico  I 
brought  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  director  of  the 
Museo,  the  learned  Dr.  Nicolas  Leon  ;  and  so  cordially 
was  this  letter  worded,  and  so  cordially  was  it  received, 
that  within  the  day  of  my  coming  into  that  strange 
city  I  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  friends.  At  once 
their  hearts  and  their  houses  were  opened  to  me,  and 
they  gave  me  with  a  warm  enthusiasm  the  benefit  of 
their  knowledge  and  of  their  active  assistance  in  for 
warding  the  work  that  I  had  in  hand. 

In  the  quiet  retirement  of  the  Museo  I  opened  to 
that  one  of  its  members  to  whom  the  director  espe 
cially  had  commended  me,  Don  Rafael  Moreno,  the 
purposes  which  I  had  in  view,  and  the  means  by  which 
I  hoped  to  accomplish  them.  " Surely,"  I  said,  "among 
the  free  Indians  in  the  mountains  hereabouts  much  may 
be  found — in  customs,  in  tone  of  thought,  in  religion 
— that  has  remained  unchanged  since  the  time  of  the 
conquest." 

Don  Rafael  nodded.  "  Fray  Antonio  has  said  as 
much,"  he  observed,  thoughtfully. 

"And  as  your  own  distinguished  countryman,  Senor 
Orozco  y  Berra,  has  pointed  out,"  I  continued,  "many 
dark  places  in  primitive  history  may  be  made  clear, 


FRAY    ANTONIO.  19 

many  illusions  may  be  dispelled,  and  many  deeply  in 
teresting  truths  may  be  gathered  by  one  who  will  go 
among  these  Indians,  lending  himself  to  their  mode 
of  life,  and  will  note  accurately  what  he  thus  learns 
from  sources  wholly  original." 

"  Fray  Antonio  has  professed  the  same  belief,"  Don 
Rafael  answered.  "But  that  his  love  is  greater  for 
the  saving  of  heathen  souls  than  for  the  advancement 
of  antiquarian  knowledge,  he  long  ago  would  have 
done  what  you  now  propose  to  do.  He  has  done  much 
towards  gathering  a  portion  of  the  information  that 
you  seek,  even  as  it  is." 

"And  who  is  this  Fray  Antonio,  senor?" 
"He  is  the  man  who  of  all  men  can  give  you  the 
wisest  help  in  your  present  need.  We  see  but  little  of 
him  here  at  the  Museo,  though  he  is  one  of  our  most 
honored  members,  for  his  time  is  devoted  so  wholly  to 
the  godly  work  to  which  he  has  given  himself  that  but 
little  remains  to  him  to  use  in  other  ways.  He  is  a 
monk,  vowed  to  the  Rule  of  St.  Francis.  As  you  know, 
since  the  promulgation  of  the  Laws  of  the  Reform, 
monks  are  not  permitted  in  our  country  to  live  in  com 
munities  ;  but,  with  only  a  few  exceptions,  the  con 
ventual  churches  which  have  not  been  secularized  still 
are  administered  by  members  of  the  religious  orders 
to  which  they  formerly  belonged.  Fray  Antonio  has 
the  charge  of  the  church  of  San  Francisco — over  by 
the  market-place,  you  know — and  virtually  is  a  parish 
priest.  He  is  a  religious  enthusiast.  In  God's  service 
he  gives  himself  no  rest.  The  common  people  here, 
bis  loving  labors  among  them  while  tlie 


20  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

lence  of  small-pox  raged,  reverently  believe  him  to  be 
a  saint ;  and  those  of  a  higher  class,  who  know  what 
heroic  work  he  did  in  that  dreadful  time,  and  who  see 
how  perfectly  his  life  conforms  to  the  principles  which 
he  professes,  and  how  like  is  the  spirit  of  holiness  that 
animates  him  to  that  of  the  sainted  men  who  founded 
the  order  to  which  he  belongs,  are  disposed  to  hold  a 
like  opinion.  Truly,  it  is  by  the  especial  grace  of  God 
that  men  like  Fray  Antonio  are  permitted  at  times  to 
dwell  upon  this  sinful  earth." 

Don  Rafael  spoke  with  a  depth  of  feeling  and  a 
reverence  of  tone  that  gave  to  his  strong  words  still 
greater  strength  and  deeper  meaning.  After  a  mo 
ment's  pause  he  resumed:  "But  that  which  is  of  most 
interest  to  you,  seiior,  is  the  knowledge  that  Fray  An 
tonio  has  gained  of  our  native  Indians  during  his  min 
istrations  among  them.  It  is  the  dearest  wish  of  his 
heart  to  carry  to  these  heathen  souls  the  saving  grace 
of  Christianity,  and  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
good  purpose  he  makes  many  journeys  into  the  mount 
ains  ;  ministering  in  the  chapels  which  his  zeal  has 
founded  in  the  Indian  towns,  and  striving  earnestly 
by  his  preaching  of  God's  word  to  bring  these  far- 
wandered  sheep  into  the  Christian  fold.  Very  often 
his  life  has  been  in  most  imminent  peril,  for  the  idol 
atrous  priests  of  the  mountain  tribes  hate  him  with  a 
most  bitter  hatred  because  of  the  inroads  which  his 
mild  creed  is  making  upon  the  cruel  creed  which 
they  uphold.  Yet  is  he  careless  of  the  danger  to 
which  he  exposes  himself;  and  there  be  those  who 
believe,  such  is  the  temerity  with  which  he  manifests 


FEAT    ANTONIO.  21 

his  zeal,  that  he  rather  seeks  than  shuns  a  martyr's 
crown." 

Again  Don  Rafael  paused,  and  again  was  it  evident 
that  deep  feelings  moved  him  as  he  spoke  of  the  holy 
life  of  this  most  holy  man.  "You  will  thus  under 
stand,  senor,"  he  went  on,  "that  Fray  Antonio  of  all 
men  is  best  fitted  by  his  knowledge  of  the  ways  of 
these  mountain  Indians  to  advise  you  touching  your 
going  among  them  and  studying  them.  You  cannot 
do  better  than  confer  with  him  at  once.  It  is  but  a 
step  to  the  church  of  San  Francisco.  Let  us  go." 

What  Don  Rafael  had  said  had  opened  new  hori 
zons  to  me,  and  I  was  stirred  by  strange  feelings  as 
we  passed  out  together  from  the  shady  silence  of  the 
Museo  into  the  bright  silence  of  the  streets :  for  Mo- 
relia  is  a  quiet  city,  wherein  at  all  times  is  gentleness 
and  rest.  For  priests  in  general,  and  for  Mexican 
priests  in  particular,  I  had  entertained  always  a  pro 
found  contempt ;  but  now,  from  an  impartial  source, 
I  had  heard  of  a  Mexican  priest  whose  life -springs 
seemed  to  be  the  soul  -  stirring  impulses  of  the  thir 
teenth  century;  who  was  devoted  in  soul  and  in  body 
to  the  service  of  God  and  of  his  fellow-men;  in  whom, 
in  a  word,  the  seraphic  spirit  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 
seemed  to  live  again.  But  by  this  way  coming  to  such 
tangible  evidence  of  the  survival  in  the  present  time 
of  forces  which  were  born  into  the  world  six  hundred 
years  ago,  my  thoughts  took  a  natural  turn  to  my  own 
especial  interests ;  and,  by  perhaps  not  over  -  strong 
analogy,  I  reasoned  that  if  this  monk  still  lived  so 
closely  to  the  letter  and  to  the  spirit  of  the  Rule  that 


22  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

St.  Francis,  six  centuries  back,  gave  to  his  order,  most 
reasonably  might  I  hope  to  find  still  quick  something 
of  the  life  that  was  in  full  vigor  in  Mexico  only  a 
little  more  than  half  that  many  centuries  ago. 

We  turned  off  from  the  Calle  Principal  by  the  little 
old  church  of  La  Cruz,  and  passed  onward  across  the 
market-place,  where  buying  and  selling  went  on  lan 
guidly,  and  where  a  drowsy  hum  of  talk  made  a  rhyth 
mic  setting  to  a  scene  that  seemed  to  my  unaccustomed 
eyes  less  a  bit  of  real  life  than  a  bit  lifted  bodily  from 
an  opera.  Facing  the  market-place  was  the  ancient 
church ;  and  the  change  was  a  pleasant  one,  from  the 
vivid  sunlight  and  warmth  of  the  streets  to  its  cool, 
shadowy  interior :  where  the  only  sign  of  life  was  a 
single  old  woman,  her  head  muffled  in  her  rebozo, 
praying  her  way  along  the  Stations  of  the  Cross.  For 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  prayer 
been  made  and  praise  been  offered  here  ;  and  as  I 
thought  of  the  many  generations  who  here  had  minis 
tered  and  worshipped — though  evil  hearts  in  plenty, 
no  doubt,  both  within  and  without  the  chancel  there 
had  been — it  seemed  to  me  that  some  portion  of  the 
subtle  essence  of  all  the  soul-longings  for  heavenly  help 
and  guidance  that  here  had  been  breathed  forth,  by 
men  and  women  truly  struggling  against  the  sinful 
forces  at  work  in  the  world,  had  entered  into  the  very 
fabric  of  that  ancient  church,  and  so  had  sanctified  it. 

We  crossed  to  the  eastern  end  of  the  church,  where 
was  a  low  door-way,  closed  by  a  heavy  wooden  door 
that  was  studded  with  rough  iron  nails  and  ornament 
ed  with  rudely  finished  iron- work;  pushing  which  door 


PRAY    ANTONIO.  23 

open  briskly,  as  one  having  the  assured  right  of  entry 
there,  Don  Rafael  courteously  stood  aside  and  mo 
tioned  to  me  to  enter  the  sacristy. 

From  the  shadowy  church  I  passed  at  a  step  into  a 
small  vaulted  room  brilliant  with  the  sunlight  that 
poured  into  it  through  a  broad  window  that  faced  the 
south.  Just  where  this  flood  of  sunshine  fell  upon  the 
flagged  floor,  rising  from  a  base  of  stone  steps  built 
up  in  pyramidal  form,  was  a  large  cross  of  some  dark 
wood,  on  which  was  the  life-size  figure  of  the  crucified 
Christ ;  and  there,  on  the  bare  stone  pavement  before 
this  emblem  of  his  faith,  his  face,  on  which  the  sun 
light  fell  full,  turned  upward  towards  the  holy  image, 
and  his  arms  raised  in  supplication,  clad  in  his  Fran 
ciscan  habit,  of  which  the  hood  had  fallen  back,  knelt 
Fray  Antonio ;  and  upon  his  pale,  holy  face,  that  the 
rich  sunlight  glorified,  was  an  expression  so  seraphic, 
so  entranced,  that  it  seemed  as  though  to  his  fervent 
gaze  the  very  gates  of  heaven  must  be  open,  and  all 
the  splendors  and  glories  and  majesties  of  paradise 
revealed. 

It  is  as  I  thus  first  saw  Fray  Antonio — verily  a  saint 
kneeling  before  the  cross — that  I  strive  to  think  of 
him  always.  Yet  even  when  that  other  and  darker, 
but  surely  more  glorious,  picture  of  him  rises  before 
my  mind  I  am  not  disconsolate ;  for  at  such  times  the 
thought  possesses  me — coming  to  me  clearly  and  ve 
hemently,  as  though  from  a  strongly  impelled  force 
without  myself — that  what  he  prayed  for  at  the  mo 
ment  when  I  beheld  him  was  that  which  God  granted 
to  him  in  the  end. 


Z4  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Some  men  being  thus  broken  in  upon  while  in  the 
very  act  of  communing  with  Heaven  would  have  been 
distressed  and  ill  at  ease — as  I  assuredly  was  because 
I  had  so  interrupted  him.  But  to  Fray  Antonio,  as  I 
truly  believe,  communion  with  Heaven  was  so  entirely 
a  part  of  his  daily  life  that  our  sudden  entry  in  no 
wise  ruffled  him.  After  a  moment,  that  he  might  re 
call  his  thoughts  within  himself  and  so  to  earth  again, 
he  arose  from  his  knees,  and  with  a  grave,  simple  grace 
came  forward  to  greet  us.  He  was  not  more  than 
eight-and-twenty  years  old,  and  he  was  slightly  built 
and  thin — not  emaciated,  but  lean  with  the  wholesome 
leanness  of  one  who  strove  to  keep  his  body  in  the 
careful  order  of  a  machine  of  which  much  work  was 
required.  His  face  still  hacl  in  it  the  soft  roundness 
and  tenderness  of  youth,  that  accorded  well  with  its 
expression  of  gracious  sweetness  ;  but  there  was  a 
firmness  about  the  fine,  strong  chin,  and  in  the  set  of 
the  delicate  lips,  that  showed  a  reserve  of  masterful 
strength.  And  most  of  all  did  this  strength  shine 
forth  from  his  eyes  ;  which,  truly,  though  at  this  first 
sight  of  him  I  did  not  perceive  it  fully,  were  the  most 
wonderful  eyes  that  ever  I  have  seen.  As  I  then  be 
held  them  I  thought  them  black;  but  they  really  were 
a  dark  blue,  and  so  were  in  keeping  with  his  fair  skin 
and  hair.  Yet  that  which  gave  them  so  strong  an  in 
dividuality  was  less  their  changing  color  than  the  mar 
vellous  way  in  which  their  expression  changed  with 
every  change  of  feeling  of  the  soul  that  animated 
them.  When  I  first  saw  them,  turned  up  towards 
heaven,  they  seemed  to  speak  a  heavenly  language  full 


FRAY    ANTONIO.  25 

of  love;  and  when  I  saw  them  last,  stern,  but  shining 
with  the  exultant  light  of  joy  triumphant,  they  fairly 
hurled  the  wrath  of  outraged  Heaven  against  the  con 
quered  powers  of  hell.  And  I  can  give  no  adequate 
conception  of  the  love  that  shone  forth  from  them 
when  pitying  sympathy  for  human  sorrow,  or  even  for 
the  pain  which  brute  beasts  suffered,  touched  that 
most  tender  heart  for  which  they  spoke  in  tones  richer 
and  fuller  than  the  tones  of  words. 

Don  Rafael,  standing  without  the  door  that  he  had 
opened  in  order  that  I  might  precede  him,  did  not  per 
ceive  that  we  had  interrupted  Fray  Antonio  in  his 
prayers  ;  and  began,  therefore,  in  the  lively  manner 
natural  to  him,  when  I  had  been  in  due  form  presented 
as  an  American  archaeologist  come  to  Mexico  to  pursue 
my  studies  of  its  primitive  inhabitants,  to  commend 
the  undertaking  that  I  had  in  hand,  and  to  ask  of  Fray 
Antonio  the  aid  in  prosecuting  it  that  he  so  well  could 
give. 

Perhaps  it  was  that  Fray  Antonio  understood  how 
wholly  my  heart  already  had  gone  out  to  him — as 
suredly,  later,  there  was  such  close  sympathy  between 
us  that  our  thoughts  would  go  and  come  to  each  other 
without  need  for  words — and  so  was  disposed  in  some 
instinctive  way  to  join  his  purposes  with  mine;  but,  be 
this  as  it  may,  before  Don  Rafael  well  could  finish  the 
explanation  of  my  wishes,  Fray  Antonio  had  compre 
hended  what  I  desired,  and  had  promised  to  give  me 
his  aid. 

"The  senor  already  has  a  book-knowledge  of  our 
native  tongues.  That  is  well.  The  speaking  knowl- 


26  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

edge  will  come  easily.  He  shall  have  the  boy  Pablo 
for  his  servant.  A  good  boy  is  Pablo.  With  him 
he  can  talk  in  the  Nahua  dialect — which  is  the  most 
important,  for  it  is  sprung  most  directly  from  the  an 
cient  stock.  And  I  will  arrange  that  the  senor  shall 
live  for  a  time  in  the  mountains — it  will  be  a  hard  life, 
I  fear — at  Santa  Maria  and  at  San  Andres,  in  which 
villages  he  can  gain  a  mouth-mastery  of  both  Otonii 
and  Tarascan.  A  little  time  must  be  given  to  all  this 
— some  months,  no  doubt.  But  the  sefior,  who  already 
has  studied  through  ten  years,  will  understand  the 
needfulness  of  this  short  discipline.  To  a  true  student 
study  in  itself  is  a  delight — still  more  that  study  which 
makes  the  realization  of  a  long-cherished  purpose  pos 
sible.  The  senor,  I  know,  reads  Spanish,  since  so  per 
fectly  he  speaks  it " — this  with  a  gracious  movement 
of  the  hands  and  a  courteous  inclination  of  the  body 
that  enhanced  the  value  of  the  compliment — "  but  does 
the  senor  read  with  ease  our  ancient  Spanish  script  ?" 

"  I  have  never  attempted  it,"  I  answered.  "  But  as 
I  can  read  easily  the  old  printed  Spanish,  I  suppose,"  I 
added,  a  little  airily,  "  that  I  shall  have  no  great  diffi 
culty  in  reading  the  old  script  also." 

Fray  Antonio  smiled  a  little  as  he  glanced  at  Don 
Rafael,  who  smiled  also,  and  as  he  turned  out  his 
hands,  answered:  "Perhaps.  But  it  is  not  quite  the 
same  as  print,  as  the  senor  will  know  when  he  tries. 
But  it  makes  no  difference;  for  what  is  most  interest 
ing  in  our  archives  I  shall  be  glad — and  so  also  will 
be  Don  Rafael — to  aid  him  in  reading. 

"  You  must  know,  senor,"  he  went  on,  dropping  his 


FRAY    ANTONIO.  2? 

formal  mode  of  address  as  his  interest  in  the  subject 
augmented,  and  as  his  feeling  towards  me  grew  warmer, 
"that  many  precious  documents  are  here  preserved. 
So  early  as  the  year  1536  this  western  region  was 
erected  into  a  Custodia,  distinct  from  the  Province  of 
the  Santo  Evangelio  of  Mexico ;  and  from  that  time 
onward  letters  and  reports  relating  to  the  work  done 
by  the  missionaries  of  our  order  among  the  heathen 
have  been  here  received.  In  truth,  I  doubt  not  that 
many  historic  treasures  are  hidden  here.  In  modern 
times,  during  the  last  hundred  years  or  more,  but  little 
thought  has  been  given  to  the  care  of  these  old  papers 
— which  are  so  precious  to  such  as  Don  Rafael  and 
yourself  because  of  their  antiquarian  value,  and  which 
are  still  more  precious  to  me  because  they  tell  of  the 
sowing  among  the  heathen  of  the  seed  of  God's  own 
Word.  It  is  probable  that  they  have  not  been  at  all 
examined  into  since  our  learned  brothers  Pablo  de 
Beaumont  and  Alonzo  de  la  Rea  were  busy  with  the 
writing  of  their  chronicles  of  this  Province — and  the 
labors  of  these  brothers  ended  more  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago.  In  the  little  time  that  I  myself 
can  give  to  such  matters  I  already  have  found  many 
manuscripts  which  cast  new  and  curious  light  upon 
the  strange  people  who  dwelt  here  in  Mexico  before 
the  Spaniards  came.  Some  of  these  I  will  send  for 
your  examination,  for  they  will  prepare  you  for  the 
work  you  have  in  contemplation  by  giving  you  useful 
knowledge  of  primitive  modes  of  life  and  tones  of  faith 
and  phases  of  thought.  And  while  you  are  in  the 
mountains,  at  Santa  Maria  and  San  Andres,  I  will  make 


28  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

further  searches  in  our  archives,  and  what  I  find  you 
shall  see  upon  your  return. 

"With  your  permission,  senores,  I  must  now  go 
about  my  work.  Don  Rafael  knows  that  I  am  much 
too  ready  to  forget  my  work  in  talk  of  ancient  mat 
ters.  It  is  a  weakness  with  me  —  this  love  for  the 
study  of  antiquity — that  I  struggle  against,  but  that 
seems  rather  to  increase  upon  me  than  to  be  overcome. 
This  afternoon,  seiior,  I  will  send  a  few  of  the  ancient 
manuscripts  to  you.  And  so — until  we  meet  again." 


n. 

THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET. 

FRAY  ANTONIO  punctually  fulfilled  his  promise  in 
regard  to  the  manuscripts,  and  I  had  but  to  glance  at 
them  in  order  to  understand  the  smile  that  he  had  in 
terchanged  with  Don  Rafael  when  I  so  airily  had  ex 
pressed  my  confidence  in  my  ability  to  read  them. 
To  say  that  I  more  easily  could  read  Hebrew  is  not  to 
the  purpose,  for  I  can  read  Hebrew  very  well ;  but  it 
is  precisely  to  the  purpose  to  say  that  I  could  not  read 
them  at  all !  What  with  the  curious,  involved  forma 
tion  of  the  several  letters,  the  extraordinary  abbrevia 
tions,  the  antique  spelling,  the  strange  forms  of  ex 
pression,  and  the  use  of  obsolete  words  I  could  not 
make  sense  of  so  much  as  a  single  line.  Yet  when, 
being  forced  into  inglorious  surrender,  I  carried  the 
manuscripts  to  the  Museo,  and  appealed  to  Don  Rafael 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  29 

for  assistance,  he  read  to  me  in  fluent  Spanish  all  that 
I  had  found  so  utterly  incomprehensible.  "  It  is  only 
a  knack,"  he  explained.  "A  little  time  and  patience 
are  required  at  first,  but  then  all  comes  easily."  But 
Don  Rafael  did  here  injustice  to  his  own  scholarship. 
More  than  a  little  time  and  patience  have  I  since  given 
to  the  study  of  ancient  Spanish  script,  and  I  am  even 
yet  very  far  from  being  an  expert  in  the  reading  of  it. 
In  regard  to  the  other  promise  that  Fray  Antonio 
made  me — that  he  would  send  me  a  servant  who  also 
would  serve  as  a  practical  instructor  in  the  Nahua,  or 
Aztec,  dialect — he  was  equally  punctual.  While  I  was 
taking,  in  my  bedroom,  my  first  breakfast  of  bread  and 
coffee  the  morning  following  my  visit  to  the  church  of 
San  Francisco,  I  heard  a  faint  sound  of  music  ;  but 
whether  it  was  loud  music  at  a  distance  or  very  soft 
music  near  at  hand  I  could  not  tell.  Presently  I  per 
ceived  that  the  musician  was  feeling  about  among  the 
notes  for  the  sabre  song  from  La  Grande  Duchesse — 
selections  from  which  semi-obsolete  opera,  as  I  then 
remembered,  had  been  played  by  the  military  band  on 
the  plaza  the  evening  before.  Gradually  the  playing 
grew  more  assured;  until  it  ended  in  an  accurate  and 
spirited  rendering  of  the  air.  With  this  triumph,  the 
volume  of  the  sound  increased  greatly;  and  from  its 
tones  I  inferred  that  the  instrument  was  a  concertina, 
and  that  whoever  played  it  was  in  the  inner  court-yard 
of  the  hotel.  Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  the  music, 
there  sounded  —  and  this  sound  unmistakably  came 
from  the  hotel  court-yard — the  prodigious  braying  of 
an  ass  j  and  accompanying  this  came  the  soft  sound  of 


30  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

bare  feet  hurrying  away  down  the  passage  from  near 
my  door. 

I  opened  the  door  and  looked  out,  but  the  passage  was 
empty.  The  gallery  overlooked  the  court-yard,  and 
stepping  to  the  edge  of  the  low  stone  railing,  I  beheld 
a  sight  that  I  never  recall  without  a  feeling  of  warm 
tenderness.  Almost  directly  beneath  me  stood  a  small 
gray  ass,  a  very  delicately  shaped  and  perfect  little 
animal,  with  a  coat  of  most  extraordinary  length  and 
fuzziness,  and  with  ears  of  a  truly  prodigious  size. 
His  head  was  raised,  and  his  great  ears  were  pricked 
forward  in  a  fashion  which  indicated  that  he  was  most 
intently  listening;  and  upon  his  face  was  an  expression 
of  such  benevolent  sweetness,  joined  to  such  thought- 
fulness  and  meditative  wisdom,  that  in  my  heart  (which 
is  very  open  to  affection  for  his  gentle  kind)  there 
sprung  up  in  a  moment  a  real  love  for  him.  Sudden 
ly  he  lowered  his  head,  and  turned  eagerly  his  regard 
towards  the  corner  of  the  court-yard  where  descended 
the  stair-way  from  the  gallery  on  which  I  stood;  and 
from  this  quarter  came  towards  him  a  smiling,  pleasant- 
faced  Indian  lad  of  eighteen  or  twenty  years  old,  whose 
dress  was  a  cotton  shirt  and  cotton  trousers,  whose  feet 
were  bare,  and  on  whose  head  was  a  battered  hat  of 
straw.  And  as  the  ass  saw  the  boy,  he  strained  at  the 
cord  that  tethered  him  and  gave  another  mighty  bray. 

"  Dost  thou  call  me,  Wise  One  ?"  said  the  boy,  speak 
ing  in  Spanish.  "Truly  this  Seuor  Americano  is  a 
lazy  sefior,  that  he  rises  so  late,  and  keeps  us  waiting 
for  his  coming  so  long.  But  patience,  Wise  One,  The 
says  that  he  is  a  goqc]  gent  loman»  W  whos§  fiery* 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  31 

ice  we  shall  be  treated  as  though  we  were  kings.  No 
doubt  I  now  can  buy  my  rain-coat.  And  thou,Wise 
One — thou  shalt  have  beans!" 

And  being  by  this  time  come  to  the  ass,  the  boy  en 
folded  in  his  arms  the  creature's  fuzzy  head  and  gently 
stroked  its  preternaturally  long  ears.  And  the  ass, 
for  its  part,  responded  to  the  caress  by  rubbing  its 
head  against  the  boy's  breast  and  by  most  energetically 
twitching  its  scrag  of  a  tail.  Thus  for  a  little  time 
these  friends  manifested  for  each  other  their  affection ; 
and  then  the  boy  seated  himself  on  the  pavement  be 
side  the  ass  and  drew  forth  from  his  pocket  a  large 
mouth-organ — on  which  he  went  to  work  with  such  a 
will  that  all  the  court-yard  rang  with  the  strains  of 
Offenbach's  music. 

It  was  plain  from  what  he  had  said  that  this  was  the 
boy  whom  Fray  Antonio  had  promised  to  send  to  me; 
and  notwithstanding  his  uncomplimentary  comments 
upon  my  laziness,  I  had  taken  already  a  strong  liking 
to  him.  I  waited  until  he  had  played  through  the 
sabre  song  again — to  which,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  the 
ass  listened  with  a  slightly  critical  yet  pleased  atten 
tion — and  then  I  hailed  him. 

"  The  lazy  Senor  Americano  is  awake  at  last,  Pablo," 
I  called.  "  Come  up  hither,  and  we  will  talk  about 
the  buying  of  thy  rain-coat,  and  about  the  buying  of 
the  Wise  One's  beans." 

The  boy  jumped  up  as  though  a  spring  had  been 
let  loose  beneath  him,  and  his  shame  and  confusion 
were  so  great  that  I  was  sorry  enough  that  I  had  made 
my  little  joke  upon  him. 


32  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

"  It  is  all  right,  my  child,"  I  said,  quickly,  and  with 
all  the  kindness  that  I  could  put  into  my  tones. 
"  Thou  wert  talking  to  the  Wise  One,  not  to  me — and 
I  have  forgotten  all  that  I  heard.  Thou  art  come  from 
Fray  Antonio  ?" 

"  Yes,  senor,"  he  answered ;  and  as  he  saw  by  my 
smiling  that  no  harm  had  been  done,  he  also  smiled; 
and  so  honest  and  kindly  was  the  lad's  face  that  I  liked 
him  more  and  more. 

"  Patience  for  yet  a  little  longer,  Wise  One,"  he  said, 
turning  to  the  ass,  who  gravely  wagged  his  ears  in  an 
swer.  And  then  the  boy  came  up  the  stair  to  the  gal 
lery,  and  so  we  went  to  my  room  that  I  might  have  talk 
with  him. 

It  was  not  much  that  Pablo  had  to  tell  about  himself. 
He  was  a  Guadalajara  lad,  born  in  the  Indian  suburb 
of  Mexicalcingo — as  his  musical  taste  might  have  told 
me  had  I  known  more  of  Mexico — who  had  drifted  out 
into  the  world  to  seek  his  fortune.  His  capital  was  the 
ass— so  wise  an  ass  that  he  had  named  him  El  Sabio. 
"He  knows  each  word  that  I  speak  to  him,  senor," 
said  Pablo,  earnestly.  "And  when  he  hears,  even  a 
long  way  off,  the  music  that  I  make  upon  the  little  in 
strument,  he  knows  that  it  is  from  me  the  music  comes, 
and  calls  to  me.  And  he  loves  me,  senor,  as  though  he 
were  my  brother  ;  and  he  knows  that  with  the  same 
tenderness  I  also  love  him.  It  was  the  good  Padre 
who  gave  him  to  me.  God  rest  and  bless  him  always  1" 
This  pious  wish,  I  inferred,  related  not  to  the  ass  but 
to  Fray  Antonio. 

"  And  how  dost  thou  live,  Pablo  ?"  I  asked. 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  33 

"  By  bringing  water  from  the  Spring  of  the  Holy 
Children,  senor.  It  is  two  leagues  away,  the  Ojo  de 
los  Santos  Ninos,  and  El  Sabio  and  I  make  thither  two 
journeys  daily.  We  bring  back  each  time  four  jars  of 
water,  which  we  sell  here  in  the  city — for  it  is  very 
good,  sweet  water — at  three  tlacos  the  jar.  You  see, 
I  make  a  great  deal  of  money,  senor — three  reales 
a  day  !  If  it  were  not  for  one  single  thing,  I  should 
soon  be  rich." 

That  riches  could  be  acquired  rapidly  on  a  basis 
of  about  twenty-seven  cents,  in  our  currency,  a  day 
struck  me  as  a  novel  notion.  But  I  inquired,  gravely: 
"  And  this  one  thing  that  hinders  thee  from  getting 
rich,  Pablo,  what  is  it  ?" 

"  It  is  that  I  eat  so  much,  senor,"  Pablo  answered, 
ruefully.  "  Truly  it  seems  as  though  this  belly  of  mine 
never  could  be  filled.  I  try  valiantly  to  eat  little  and 
so  to  save  my  money;  but  my  belly  cries  out  for  more 
and  yet  more  food — and  so  my  money  goes.  Although 
I  make  so  much,  I  can  scarcely  save  a  media  in  a  whole 
week,  when  what  El  Sabio  must  have  and  what  I  must 
have  is  paid  for.  And  I  am  trying  so  hard  to  save  just 
now,  for  before  the  next  rainy  season  comes  I  want  to 
own  a  rain-coat.  But  for  a  good  one  I  must  pay  seven 
reales.  The  price  is  vast." 

"  What  is  a  rain-coat,  Pablo?" 

"  The  senor  does  not  know  ?  That  is  strange.  It  is 
a  coat  woven  of  palm  leaves,  so  that  all  over  one  it  is 
as  a  thatch  that  the  rain  cannot  come  through.  What 
I  was  saying  just  now  to  El  Sabio — "  Pablo  stopped 
suddenly,  and  turned  aside  from  me  in  a  shamefaced 
3 


34  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

way,  as  he  remembered  what  he  also  had  said  to  El 
Sabio  about  my  laziness. 

" — Was  that  out  of  the  wages  I  am  to  pay  thee 
thou  canst  save  enough  money  to  buy  thy  coat  with," 
I  said,  quickly,  wishing  to  rid  him  of  his  confusion. 
And  then  we  fell  to  talking  of  what  these  wages  should 
be,  and  of  how  he  was  to  help  me  to  gain  a  speaking 
knowledge  of  his  native  tongue — for  so  far  we  had 
spoken  Spanish  together — and  of  what  in  general  would 
be  his  duties  as  my  servant.  That  El  Sabio  could  be 
anything  but  a  part  of  the  contract  seemed  never  to 
cross  Pablo's  mind;  and  so  presently  our  terms  were 
concluded,  and  I  found  myself  occupying  the  respon 
sible  relation  of  master  to  a  mouth-organ  playing  boy 
and  an  extraordinarily  wise  ass.  It  was  arranged  that 
both  of  these  dependants  of  mine  should  accompany  me 
in  my  expedition  to  the  Indian  villages  ;  and  to  clinch 
our  bargain  I  gave  Pablo  the  seven  reafes  wherewith  to 
buy  his  rain-coat  on  the  spot. 

I  was  a  little  surprised,  two  days  later,  when  we 
started  from  Morelia  on  our  journey  into  the  mountains 
to  the  westward,  to  find  that  Pablo  had  not  bought 
his  much-desired  garment;  though,  to  be  sure,  as  the 
rainy  season  still  was  a  long  way  oif,  there  was  no  need 
for  it.  He  hesitated  a  little  when  I  questioned  him 
about  it,  and  then,  in  a  very  apologetic  tone,  said: 
"Perhaps  the  senor  will  forgive  me  for  doing  so  ill 
with  his  money.  But  indeed  I  could  not  help  it. 
There  is  an  old  man,  his  name  is  Juan,  senor,  who 
has  been  very  good  to  me  many  times.  He  has  given 
me  things  to  put  into  this  wretchedly  big  belly  of 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  35 

mine;  and  when  I  broke  one  of  my  jars  he  lent  me  the 
money  to  buy  another  with,  and  would  take  from  me 
again  only  what  the  jar  cost  and  no  more.  Just  now 
this  old  man  is  sick — it  is  rheumatism,  senor — and  he 
has  no  money  at  all,  and  he  and  his  wife  have  not 
much  to  eat,  and  I  know  what  pain  that  is.  And  so — 
and  so —  Will  the  senor  forgive  me  ?  I  do  not  need  the 
rain-coat  now,  the  senor  understands.  And  so  I  gave 
Juan  the  seven  reales,  which  he  will  pay  me  when  he 
gets  well  and  works  again ;  and  should  he  die  and  not 
pay  me —  Does  the  senor  know  what  I  have  been 
thinking?  It  is  that  rain-coats  really  are  not  very 
needful  things,  after  all.  Without  them  one  gets  wet, 
it  is  true;  but  then  one  soon  gets  dry  again.  But 
truly  "  —  and  there  was  a  sudden  catching  in  Pablo's 
throat  that  was  very  like  a  sob — "truly  I  did  want  one." 
When  Pablo  had  told  this  little  story  I  did  not  won 
der  at  the  esteem  in  which  Fray  Antonio  held  him, 
and  from  that  time  onward  he  had  a  very  warm  place 
in  my  heart.  And  I  may  say  that  but  for  his  too  great 
devotion  to  his  mouth-organ — for  that  boy  never  could 
hear  a  new  tune  but  that  he  needs  must  go  at  once 
to  practising  it  upon  his  beloved  "  instrumentito "  un 
til  he  had  mastered  it — he  was  the  best  servant  that 
man  ever  had.  And  within  his  gentle  nature  was  a 
core  of  very  gallant  fearlessness.  In  the  times  of  dan 
ger  which  we  shared  together  later,  excepting  only 
Rayburn,  not  one  of  us  stood  face  to  face  and  foot  to 
foot  with  death  with  a  steadier  or  a  calmer  bravery; 
for  in  all  his  composition  there  did  not  seem  to  be  one 
fibre  tbat  ooujd  be  mad*  to  tfwll  In 


36  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

fear.  Of  his  qualities  as  a  servant  I  had  a  good  trial 
during  the  two  months  that  we  were  together  in  the 
mountains — in  which  time  I  got  enough  working  knowl 
edge  of  the  Indian  dialects  to  make  effective  the  knowl 
edge  that  I  had  gained  from  books — and  I  was  amazed 
by  the  quickness  that  he  manifested  in  apprehending  and 
in  supplying  my  wants  and  in  understanding  my  ways. 

As  to  making  any  serious  study  of  Indian  customs — 
save  only  those  of  the  most  open  and  well-known  sort — 
in  this  short  time,  I  soon  perceived  that  the  case  was 
quite  hopeless.  Coming  from  Fray  Antonio,  whose 
benevolent  ministrations  among  them  had  won  their 
friendship,  the  Indians  treated  me  with  a  great  respect 
and  showed  me  every  kindness.  But  I  presently  began 
to  suspect,  and  this  later  grew  to  be  conviction,  that 
because  my  credentials  came  from  a  Christian  priest  I 
was  thrust  away  all  the  more  resolutely  from  knowl 
edge  of  their  inner  life.  What  I  then  began  to  learn, 
and  what  I  learned  more  fully  later,  convinced  me  that 
these  Indians  curiously  veneered  with  Christian  prac 
tices  their  native  heathen  faith ;  manifesting  a  certain 
superstitious  reverence  for  the  Christian  rites  and  cer 
emonies,  yet  giving  sincere  worship  only  to  their  hea 
then  gods.  It  was  something  to  have  arrived  at  this 
odd  discovery,  but  it  tended  only  to  show  me  how  dif 
ficult  was  the  task  that  I  had  set  myself  of  prying  into 
the  secrets  of  the  Indians'  inner  life. 

Indeed,  but  for  an  accident,  I  should  have  returned 
to  Morelia  no  wiser,  practically,  than  when  I  left  it; 
but  by  that  turn  of  chance  fortune  most  wonderfully 
favored  me,  and  with  far-reaching  consequences.  It 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  37 

was  on  the  last  afternoon  of  my  stay  in  the  village  of 
Santa  Maria;  and  the  beginning  of  my  good-luck  was 
that  I  succeeded  in  walking  out  upon  the  mountain 
side  alone.  My  walk  had  a  decided  purpose  in  it,  for 
each  time  that  I  had  tried  to  go  in  this  direction  one 
or  another  of  the  Indians  had  been  quickly  upon  my 
heels  with  some  civil  excuse  about  the  danger  of  fall 
ing  among  the  rocks  for  leading  me  another  way. 
How  I  thus  succeeded  at  last  in  escaping  from  so 
many  watchful  eyes  I  cannot  say,  but  luck  was  with 
me,  and  I  went  on  undisturbed.  The  sharply  sloping 
.mountain-side,  very  wild  and  rugged,  was  strewn  with 
great  fragments  of  rock  which  had  fallen  from  the 
heights  above,  and  which,  lying  there  for  ages  be 
neath  the  trees,  had  come  to  be  moss-grown  and  half 
hidden  by  bushes  and  fallen  leaves.  In  the  dim  light 
that  filtered  through  the  branches,  walking  in  so  un 
certain  a  place  was  attended  with  a  good  deal  of  dan 
ger  ;  for  not  only  was  there  a  likelihood  of  falls  lead 
ing  to  broken  legs,  but  broken  necks  also  were  an  easy 
possibility  by  the  chance  of  a  slip  upon  the  mossy  edge 
of  one  or  another  of  the  many  ledges,  followed  by  a 
spin  through  the  air  ending  suddenly  upon  the  jagged 
rocks  below.  Indeed,  so  ticklish  did  I  find  my  way 
that  I  began  to  think  that  the  Indians  had  spoken  no 
more  than  the  simple  truth  in  warning  me  against 
such  dangers,  and  that  I  had  better  turn  again  while 
light  remained  to  bring  me  back  in  safety;  and  just 
as  I  had  reached  this  wise  conclusion  my  feet  slid  sud 
denly  from  under  me  on  the  very  edge  of  one  of  the 
ledges,  and  over  I  went  into  the  depth  below. 


38  THE   AZTEC  TKEASTTKE-HOUSE. 

Fortunately  I  fell  not  more  than  a  dozen  feet  or  so, 
and  my  fall  was  broken  by  a  friendly  bed  of  leaves  and 
moss.  When  I  got  to  my  feet  again,  in  a  moment,  I 
found  myself  in  a  narrow  cleft  in  the  rocks,  and  I  was 
surprised  to  see  that  through  this  cleft  ran  a  well-worn 
path.  All  thought  of  the  danger  that  I  had  just  es 
caped  from  so  narrowly  was  banished  from  my  mind 
instantly  as  I  made  this  discovery;  and  full  of  the  ex 
citing  hope  that  I  was  about  to  find  something  which 
the  Indians  most  earnestly  desired  to  conceal,  I  went 
rapidly  and  easily  onward  in  the  direction  that  I  had 
been  pressing  towards  with  so  much  difficulty  along 
the  rocky  mountain-side.  The  course  of  this  sunken 
path,  I  soon  perceived,  was  partly  natural  and  partly 
artificial.  It  went  on  through  clefts  such  as  the  one 
that  I  had  fallen  into,  and  through  devious  ways  where 
the  fragments  of  fallen  rock,  some  of  them  great  mass 
es  weighing  many  tons,  had  been  piled  upon  each  other 
in  most  natural  confusion,  so  as  to  leave  a  narrow  pas 
sage  in  their  depths.  And  all  this  had  been  done  in  a 
long-past  time,  for  the  rocks  were  thickly  coated  with 
moss ;  and  in  one  place,  where  a  watercourse  crossed 
the  path,  were  smoothed  by  water  in  a  way  that  only 
centuries  could  have  accomplished.  So  cleverly  was 
the  concealment  effected,  the  way  so  narrow  and  so 
irregular,  that  I  verily  believe  an  army  might  have 
scoured  that  mountain-side  and  never  found  the  path 
at  all,  save  by  such  accident  as  had  brought  me  into  it. 

For  half  a  mile  or  more  I  went  on  in  the  waning 
light,  my  heart  throbbing  with  the  excitement  of  it 
all,  and  so  came  out  at  last  upon  a  vast  jutting  prom- 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  39 

ontory  of  rock  that  was  thrust  forth  from  the  mount 
ain's  face  eastwardly.  Here  was  an  open  space  of  an 
acre  or  more,  in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  low,  altar- 
like  structure  of  stone.  At  the  end  of  the  narrow  path, 
being  still  within  its  shelter,  I  stopped  to  make  a  care 
ful  survey  of  the  ground  before  me  ;  for  I  realized 
that  in  what  I  was  doing  Death  stood  close  at  my  el 
bow,  and  that,  unless  I  acted  warily,  he  surely  would 
have  me  in  his  grasp.  Coming  out  of  the  shadows  of 
the  woods  and  the  deeper  shadows  of  the  sunken  path 
to  this  wide  open  space,  where  the  light  of  the  brill 
iant  sunset  was  reflected  strongly  from  masses  of  rosy 
clouds  over  all  the  eastern  sky,  I  could  see  clearly.  In 
the  midst  of  the  opening,  not  far  from  the  edge  of  the 
stupendous  precipice,  where  the  bare  rock  dropped 
sheer  down  a  thousand  feet  or  more,  was  a  huge  bowl 
der  that  had  been  cut  and  squared  with  ineffective 
tools  into  the  rude  semblance  of  a  mighty  altar.  The 
well-worn  path  along  which  I  had  come  told  the  rest 
of  the  story.  Here  was  the  temple,  having  for  its  roof 
the  great  arch  of  heaven,  in  which  the  Indians,  whom 
the  gentle  Fray  Antonio  believed  to  be  such  good 
Christians,  truly  worshipped  their  true  gods  ;  even  as 
here  their  fathers  had  worshipped  before  them  in  the 
very  dawning  of  the  ancient  past. 

A  tremor  of  joy  went  through  me  as  I  realized 
what  I  had  found.  Here  was  positive  proof  of  what  I 
had  strongly  but  not  surely  hoped  for.  The  Aztec 
faith  truly  was  still  a  living  faith;  and  it  followed  al 
most  certainly  that,  could  I  but  penetrate  the  mys 
tery  with  which  it  was  hedged  about  so  carefully  by 


40  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

them  still  faithful  to  it,  I  would  find  all  that  I  sought-^ 
of  living  customs,  of  coherent  traditions — wherewith  to 
exhibit  clearly  to  the  world  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  wonderful  social  and  religious  structure  that  the 
Spaniards  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  blotted  out,  but 
had  not  destroyed.  What  my  fellow  -  archaeologists 
had  accomplished  in  Syria,  in  Egypt,  in  Greece,  was 
nothing  to  what  I  could  thus  accomplish  in  Mexico. 
At  the  best,  Smith,  Rawlinson,  Schliemann,  had  done 
no  more  than  stir  the  dust  above  the  surface  of  dead 
antiquity ;  but  I  was  about  to  bring  the  past  freshly 
and  brightly  into  the  very  midst  of  the  present,  and  to 
make  antiquity  once  more  alive  ! 

As  I  stood  there  in  the  dusk  of  the  narrow  path 
way,  while  the  joy  that  was  in  my  heart  swelled  it  al 
most  to  bursting,  there  came  to  my  ears  the  low  moan 
ing  of  one  in  pain.  The  faint,  uncertain  sound  seemed 
to  come  from  the  direction  of  the  great  stone  altar. 
To  discover  myself  in  that  place  to  any  of  the  Indians, 
I  knew  would  end  my  archaeological  ambition  very 
summarily ;  yet  was  I  moved  by  a  natural  desire  to  aid 
whoever  thus  was  hurt  and  suffering.  I  stood  irreso 
lute  a  moment,  and  then,  as  the  moaning  came  to  me 
again,  I  went  out  boldly  into  the  open  space,  and 
crossed  it  to  where  the  altar  was.  As  I  rounded  the 
great  stone  I  saw  a  very  grievous  sight :  an  old  man 
lying  upon  the  bare  rock,  a  great  gash  in  his  forehead 
from  which  the  blood  had  flowed  down  over  his  face 
and  breast,  making  him  a  most  ghastly  object  to  look 
upon ;  and  there  was  about  him  a  certain  limpness 
that  told  of  many  broken  bones.  He  turned  his  head 


THE  CACIQUE'S  SECRET.  41 

at  the  sound  of  my  footsteps,  but  it  was  plain  that  the 
blood  flowing  into  his  eyes  had  blinded  him,  and  that 
he  could  not  see  me.  He  made  a  feeble  motion  to  clear 
his  eyes,  but  dropped  his  partly  raised  arm  suddenly  and 
with  a  moan  of  pain.  I  recognized  him  at  a  glance.  He 
was  the  Cacique,  the  chief,  and  also,  as  I  had  shrewdly 
guessed,  the  priest  of  the  village — the  very  last  person 
whom  I  would  have  desired  to  meet  in  that  place. 

"Ah, thou  art  come  to  me  at  last, Benito  !"  he  said, 
speaking  in  a  low  and  broken  voice.  "  I  have  been 
praying  to  our  gods  that  they  would  send  thee  to  me 
— for  my  death  has  come,  and  it  is  needful  that  the 
one  secret  still  hidden  from  thee,  my  successor,  should 
be  told.  I  was  on  the  altar's  top,  and  thence  I  fell." 

I  perceived  in  what  the  Cacique  said  that  there  was 
hope  for  me.  He  could  not  see  me,  and  he  evidently 
believed  that  I  was  the  second  chief  of  the  village, 
Benito — an  Indian  who  had  talked  much  with  me,  and 
the  tones  of  whose  voice  I  knew  well.  Doubtless  my 
clumsy  attempt  to  simulate  the  Indian's  speech  would 
have  been  detected  quickly  under  other  circumstances, 
but  the  Cacique  believed  that  no  other  man  could  have 
come  to  him  in  that  place ;  and  his  whole  body  was 
wrung  with  torturing  pains,  and  he  was  in  the  very  ar 
ticle  of  death.  And  so  it  was,  my  prudence  leading 
me  to  speak  few  and  simple  words,  and  my  good-luck 
still  standing  by  me,  he  never  guessed  whose  hands  in 
his  last  moments  ministered  to  him. 

As  I  raised  his  head  a  little  and  rested  it  upon  my 
knee,  he  spoke  again,  very  feebly  and  brokenly  :  "  On 
my  breast  is  the  bag  of  skin.  In  it  is  the  Priest-Cap- 


42  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

tain's  token,  and  the  paper  that  shows  the  way  to  where 
the  stronghold  of  our  race  remains.  Only  with  me 
abides  this  secret,  for  I  am  of  the  ancient  house,  as  thou 
art  also,  whence  sprung  of  old  our  priests  and  kings. 
Only  when  the  sign  that  I  have  told  thee  of — but  tell 
ing  thee  not  its  meaning — comes  from  heaven,  is  the 
token  to  be  sent,  and  with  it  the  call  for  aid.  Once, 
as  thou  knowest,  that  sign  came,  and  the  messenger, 
our  own  ancestor,  departed.  But  there  was  anger  then 
against  us  among  the  gods,  and  they  suffered  not  his 
message  to  be  delivered,  and  he  himself  was  slain.  Yet 
was  the  token  preserved  to  us,  and  yet  again  the  sign 
from  heaven  will  come.  And  then — thou  knowest — " 
But  here  a  shiver  of  pain  went  through  him,  and  his 
speech  gave  place  to  agonizing  moans.  When  he  spoke 
again  his  words  were  but  a  whisper.  "  Lay  me — in  front 
of — the  altar,"  he  said.  "  Now  is  the  end." 

"But  the  sign?  What  is  it?  And  where  is  the 
stronghold  ?"  I  cried  eagerly;  forgetting  in  the  intense 
excitement  of  this  strange  disclosure  my  need  for  reti 
cence,  and  forgetting  even  to  disguise  my  voice.  But 
my  imprudence  cost  me  nothing.  Even  as  I  spoke  an 
other  shiver  went  through  the  Cacique's  body ;  and  as 
there  came  from  his  lips,  thereafter  forever  to  be  silent, 
a  sound,  half  moan,  half  gasp,  his  soul  went  out  from 
him,  and  he  was  at  rest. 

When  a  little  calmness  had  returned  to  me,  I  took 
from  his  breast  the  bag  of  skin — stained  darkly  where 
his  blood  had  flowed  upon  it — and  then  tenderly  and 
reverently  lifted  his  poor  mangled  body  and  laid  it  be 
fore  the  altar.  And  so  I  came  back  along  the  hidden 


THE  MONK'S  MANUSCRIPT. 

path,  safely  and  unperceived,  to  the  village :  leaving 
the  dead  Cacique  there  in  the  solemn  solitude  of  that 
great  mountain -top,  whereon  the  dusk  of  night  was 
gathering,  alone  in  death  before  the  altar  of  his  gods. 


III. 

THE    MONK'S    MANUSCRIPT. 

WHEN  Pablo  and  I  started,  the  day  following,  upon 
our  return  to  Morelia,  the  village  of  Santa  Maria  was 
overcast  with  mourning.  The  Cacique  was  dead,  they 
told  us  ;  had  fallen  among  the  rocks  on  the  mountain 
side,  being  an  old  man  and  feeble,  and  so  was  killed. 
And  I  was  expressly  charged  with  a  message  to  the 
good  Padre,  begging  him  to  hasten  to  Santa  Maria  that 
the  dead  man  might  have  Christian  burial.  I  confess 
that  I  found  this  request,  though  I  promised  faithfully 
to  comply  with  it,  highly  amusing  ;  for  I  knew  beyond 
the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  if  ever  a  man  died  a 
most  earnest  and  devout  heathen  it  was  this  same 
Cacique  for  whom  Christian  burial  was  sought ;  and  I 
felt  an  assured  conviction  that  when  the  services  of  the 
Church  over  him  were  ended — and  whatever  good  was 
to  be  had  for  him  from  them  secured — he  would  be 
buried  fittingly  with  all  the  fulness  of  his  own  heathen 
rites.  But  this  matter,  lying  in  what  I  already  per 
ceived  to  be  the  very  wide  region  between  the  avow 
ed  faith  and  the  hidden  faith  of  the  Indians,  was  no 
concern  of  mine  ;  yet  I  longed,  as  only  a  thoroughly 


44  THE    AZTEC   TREASUBE-HOUSE. 

earnest  archaeologist  could  long,  to  be  a  witness  of  the 
funeral  ceremony  in  which  Fray  Antonio  most  conspic 
uously  would  not  take  part.  As  this  was  hopelessly 
impossible — for  only  by  very  slow  advances,  if  ever, 
could  I  reach  again  by  considerate  investigation  the 
point  that  in  a  moment  I  had  reached  by  chance — 
I  came  away  from  Santa  Maria  reluctantly,  yet  greatly 
elated  by  the  discovery  that  I  had  made. 

So  jealous  was  I  in  guarding  the  strange  legacy  that 
the  Cacique  had  bequeathed  to  me  that  not  until  I  was 
safe  back  in  Morelia,  in  my  room  at  the  hotel,  with  the 
door  locked  behind  me,  did  I  venture  to  examine  it. 
The  bag,  about  six  inches  square,  tightly  sewed  on  all 
four  of  its  sides,  was  made  of  snake-skin,  and  was  pro 
vided  with  a  loop  of  snake-skin  so  that  it  might  be 
hung  from  the  neck  upon  the  breast  like  a  scapulary. 
My  hands  trembled  as  I  cut  the  delicate  stitching  of 
maguey  fibre,  and  then  drew  forth  a  mass  of  several 
thicknesses  of  coarse  gray-brown  paper,  also  made  of 
the  maguey,  such  as  the  ancient  Aztecs  used.  Being  un 
folded,  I  had  before  me  a  sheet  nearly  two  feet  square, 
on  which  was  painted  in  dull  colors  a  curious  winding 
procession  of  figures  and  symbols.  My  knowledge  of 
such  matters  being  then  but  scant,  I  could  tell  only 
that  this  was  a  record,  at  once  historical  and  geograph 
ical,  of  a  tribal  migration ;  and  I  saw  at  a  glance  that 
it  was  unlike  either  of  the  famous  picture-writings 
which  record  the  migration  of  the  Aztecs  from  Culia- 
can  to  the  Valley  of  Mexico,  and  then  about  that  val 
ley  until  their  final  settlement  in  Tenochtitlan.  I  was 
reasonably  confident,  indeed,  that  this  record  differed 


THE   MONK'S   MANUSCRIPT.  45 

from  all  existing  codices ;  and  I  was  filled  with  what 
I  hope  will  be  looked  upon  as  a  pardonable  pride  at 
having  discovered,  within  three  months  of  my  coming 
to  Mexico,  this  unique  and  inestimable  treasure. 

My  natural  desire  was  to  carry  my  precious  codex  at 
once  to  Don  Rafael,  that  I  might  have  the  benefit  of 
his  superior  knowledge  in  studying  it  (for  he  had  con 
tinued  very  intelligently  the  investigation  of  Aztec 
picture-writing  that  was  so  well  begun  by  the  late 
Senor  Ramirez),  and  also  that  I  might  enjoy  his  sym 
pathetic  enjoyment  of  my  discovery.  As  I  raised  the 
bag,  that  I  might  replace  in  it  the  refolded  paper 
— which  I  already  saw  heralded  to  the  world  as  the 
Codex  Palgravius,  and  reproduced  in  fac-simile  in  Pre- 
Columbian  Conditions  on  the  Continent  of  North 
America — some  glittering  object  dropped  out  of  it 
and  fell  with  a  jingling  sound  upon  the  stone  floor. 
When  I  examined  eagerly  this  fresh  treasure  I  found 
that  it  was  a  disk  of  gold,  about  the  size  and  thick 
ness  of  a  Mexican  silver  dollar,  on  which  a  curious 
figure  was  rudely  engraved.  The  engraving  obvi 
ously  represented  an  Aztec  name-device,  the  like  of 
which,  in  the  ancient  picture-writings,  distinguish  one 
from  another  the  several  generations  of  a  line  of  kings. 
This  name-device  was  strange  to  me  ;  but,  as  I  have 
said,  I  had  not  at  that  time  studied  carefully  the 
Aztec  picture-writings,  and  there  were  many  names 
of  kings  which  I  would  not  then  have  recognized. 
But  that  the  gold  disk  was  the  token  concerning  the 
meaning  of  which  the  dying  Cacique  had  given  so 
strange  a  hint,  I  felt  assured. 


46  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Being  still  further  gladdened  by  this  fresh  discov 
ery,  I  carried  my  treasures  at  once  to  the  Museo  ;  and 
Don  Rafael's  enthusiasm  over  them  was  as  hearty  as  I 
could  desire.  Being  so  deeply  learned  in  such  matters, 
he  was  able  in  the  course  of  a  single  afternoon  to  ar 
rive  at  much  of  the  meaning  of  my  codex  ;  and  his  ren 
dering  of  it  showed  that  it  possessed  a  very  extraor 
dinary  historical  value.  In  the  Codex  Boturini,  as  is 
well  known,  are  several  important  lapses  that  neither 
that  eminent  scholar,  nor  any  other  archaeologist  whose 
conclusions  can  be  considered  trustworthy,  has  been 
able  to  supply.  All  that  reasonably  can  be  imagined 
concerning  these  breaks  is  that  the  historian  of  the 
Aztec  migration  deliberately  omitted  certain  facts 
from  his  pictured  history.  The  astonishing  discovery 
that  Don  Rafael  made  in  regard  to  my  codex  was  that 
it  unquestionably  supplied  the  facts  concealed  in  one 
of  the  longest  of  these  unaccountable  blanks.  This 
was  not  a  mere  guess  on  his  part,  but  a  demonstrable 
certainty.  On  a  fac-simile  of  the  Codex  Boturini  he 
bade  me  observe  attentively  the  pictures  which  pre 
ceded  and  which  followed  the  break  in  question  ;  and 
then  he  showed  me  that  these  same  pictures  were  the 
beginning  and  the  ending  of  my  own  codex — obvi 
ously  put  there  so  that  this  secret  record  might  be 
inserted  accurately  into  the  public  record  of  the  wan 
derings  of  the  Aztec  tribe. 

Further,  the  geographical  facts  set  forth  in  the 
Codex  Boturini  having  been  very  solidly  establish 
ed,  it  was  easy  to  determine  approximately  the  part 
pf  Mexico  tp  which  the  beginning  anci  ttos 


THE  MONK'S  MANUSCRIPT.  47 

codex  referred.  But  the  migration  here  recorded  was  a 
very  long  one,  and  all  that  Don  Rafael  could  say  with 
certainty  concerning  it  was  that  it  told  of  far  journey- 
ings  into  the  west  and  north.  He  was  much  puzzled, 
moreover,  by  a  picture  that  occurred  about  the  middle 
of  the  codex,  and  that  seemed  to  be  intended  to  repre 
sent  a  walled  city  among  mountains.  To  my  mind  this 
picture  tallied  well  with  what  the  dying  Cacique  had 
told  me  touching  the  hidden  stronghold  of  his  race. 
But  Don  Rafael  attached  very  little  importance  to  the 
Cacique's  words ;  and  on  archaeological  grounds  main 
tained  that  a  walled  city  was  an  impossibility  in  prim 
itive  Mexico — for  while  walls  were  built  in  plenty  by 
the  primitive  Mexicans,  and  still  are  to  be  found  in 
many  places,  no  mention  of  a  walled  city  is  made  by 
the  early  chroniclers,  and  of  such  a  city  there  never 
has  been  found  the  slightest  trace. 

In  regard  to  the  engraved  disk  of  gold,  Don  Rafael 
said  at  once  and  positively  that  it  represented  a  name- 
device  which  never  had  been  figured  in  any  known 
Aztec  writing  ;  and  he  was  of  the  opinion — being  led 
thereto  by  consideration  of  certain  delicate  peculiari 
ties  of  the  figure  which  were  too  subtle  for  my  unin- 
structed  apprehension  to  grasp  —  that  the  name  here 
symbolized  was  that  of  a  ruler  who  was  both  priest  and 
king.  That  the  piece  of  gold  was  found  associated 
with  picture-writing  unquestionably  belonging  to  the 
theocratic  period  lent  additional  color  to  this  assump 
tion.  The  sum  of  our  conclusions,  therefore,  was  that 
we  had  here  the  name-device  of  a  priest-king  who  had 
ruled  the  Aztec  tribe  during  some  portion  of  the  first 


48  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

migration.  And,  assuming  that  he  had  lived  during 
the  period  to  which  my  codex  referred,  and  accepting 
the  system  of  dates  tentatively  adopted  by  Senor  Rami 
rez,  we  even  fixed  the  ninth  century  of  our  era  as  the 
period  in  which  he  had  lived  and  ruled. 

During  two  whole  days  Don  Rafael  and  I  worked 
together  over  these  matters  in  the  Museo  ;  and  it  was 
not  until  our  investigations  were  ended — so  far,  at  least, 
as  investigations  could  be  said  to  be  ended  while  yet 
no  definite  conclusions  were  reached — that  my  thoughts 
reverted  to  Fray  Antonio,  and  to  the  requirement  of 
courtesy  that  I  should  report  to  him  the  result  of  my 
course  of  study  in  the  Indian  tongues.  It  is  but  jus 
tice  to  myself  to  add  that,  knowing  him  to  be  gone  to 
Santa  Maria  to  attend  to  the  Cacique's  burial,  I  had 
temporarily  dismissed  this  matter  from  my  mind. 

But  when  I  was  come  to  the  Church  of  San  Francis 
co — carrying  with  me  the  Codex  Palgravius  and  the 
engraved  disk  of  gold,  in  both  of  which  I  knew  that 
he  would  take  a  keen  interest — I  had  no  immediate  op 
portunity  of  exhibiting  to  him  my  treasures. 

As  I  pushed  open  the  sacristy  door,  when  I  had 
knocked  upon  it  and  he  had  called  to  me  to  enter,  he 
came  towards  me  at  once  in  excitement  so  eager  that 
his  face  was  all  lit  up  by  it ;  and  almost  before  I  could 
greet  him  he  exclaimed :  "You  are  most  happily  come, 
my  friend.  At  this  very  moment  I  was  about  to  send 
for  you  ;  for  I  have  found  that  which  will  stir  your 
heart  even  as  it  has  stirred  mine.  Yet  perhaps,"  and 
he  spoke  more  gravely,  "  it  will  not  stir  your  heart  in 
the  same  way  that  mine  is  stirred  by  it — for  if  I  can  but 


THE  MONK'S  MANUSCRIPT.  49 

find  the  key  that  will  unlock  the  whole  of  the  mystery 
that  here  partly  is  revealed,  I  see  before  me  such  op 
portunity  to  garner  the  Lord's  vintage  as  comes  but 
seldom  to  His  servants  in  these  later  ages  of  the  world." 

So  strange  was  Fray  Antonio's  manner,  and  so  way 
ward  seemed  his  speech,  that  I  was  half  inclined  to 
think  his  religious  enthusiasm  fairly  had  landed  him 
in  religious  madness ;  which  thought  must  have  found 
utterance  in  my  look  of  doubtfulness,  for  he  smiled 
kindly  at  me,  and  in  a  quieter  tone  went  on  : 

"  My  wits  still  are  with  me,  Don  Tomas  ;  though  I 
do  not  wonder  at  your  thinking  that  I  have  lost  them. 
Sit  down  here  and  listen  to  the  story  of  my  discovery; 
and  when  it  is  ended  you  will  perceive  that  I  very  well 
may  be  excited  by  it  and  still  be  sane." 

Being  assured  by  this  calmer  speech  that  Fray  An 
tonio  had  not  taken  leave  of  his  senses,  I  made  a  weak 
disclaimer,  that  he  smilingly  accepted,  of  my  too  clearly 
expressed  doubts  in  that  direction  ;  and  so  seated  my 
self  to  listen. 

"You  know,  senor,"  he  began,  "that  common  report 
has  declared  that  beneath  this  Church  of  San  Francisco 
is  a  secret  passage  that  extends  under  the  city  and  b-is 
its  exit  in  the  outlying  meadow-lands.  I  may  confide 
in  you  frankly  that  this  passage  does  exist,  and  that  I, 
in  common  with  all  members  of  my  Order  who  have 
dwelt  here,  know  precisely  where  its  entrance  is  and 
where  its  outlet.  These  matters  need  not  be  exposed, 
for  they  are  not  essential  to  my  purpose.  But  you 
must  know  that  in  the  midst  of  this  passage  I  found 
on  the  day  preceding  jour  return  from  the  mountains 
4 


50  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSK. 

a  little  room  of  which  the  door  was  so  well  concealed 
that  my  finding  it  was  the  merest  accident.  And  in 
the  room,  with  other  things  which  need  not  here  be 
named,  I  found  a  chest  in  which  are  certain  ancient  pa 
pers  of  which  I  have  been  long  in  search.  In  the  ar 
chives  are  frequent  references  to  these  papers — they 
are  of  much  importance  to  our  Order — but  as  with  all 
my  search  I  never  could  discover  them,  I  had  decided 
in  my  mind  that  in  one  or  another  of  the  troublous  pe 
riods  that  our  Church  has  passed  through  they  had  been 
destroyed.  It  is  plain  to  me  now  that  in  one  of  these 
periods  of  danger  they  were  hidden  in  this  safe  place. 
"  Some  of  these  papers,  dealing  with  mere  matters 
of  history,  you  will  have  pleasure  in  examining  in  due 
time.  But  that  which  I  shall  show  you  now,  and  which 
has  so  excited  me  that  you  not  unnaturally  thought  that 
I  had  gone  mad  over  it,  has  got  among  the  rest,  as  I 
verily  believe,  by  simple  accident.  Among  the  books 
and  papers  in  the  chest  was  a  parchment  case  on  which 
was  written  'Mission  of  Santa  Marta,'  and  the  date 
'1531.7  Within  it  were  some  loose  sheets  of  paper  on 
which  were  records  of  Indian  baptisms,  as  is  evident  by 
the  strange  mixing  of  Christian  and  of  heathen  names. 
Plainly,  this  was  the  register  of  some  mission  station  of 
our  Order  in  that  far-back  time.  But  as  I  pried  into  the 
case  more  closely,  I  found,  within  a  double  fold  of  the 
parchment — yet  not  as  though  intentionally  hidden,  but 
rather  as  though  there  placed  for  temporary  safety — a 
sealed  letter  directed  to  the  blessed  Fray  Juan  de  Zu- 
marraga,  who  was  of  our  Order,  and  who,  as  you  know, 
was  the  first  bishop  of  our  holy  Church  in  this  New 


THE    MONK'S   MANUSCRIPT.  51 

Spain.  As  I  drew  forth  the  letter,  the  seal,  that  time 
had  loosened,  fell  away  and  left  it  open  in  my  hand. 
That  this  letter  never  until  now  has  been  read  I  am 
altogether  confident,  for  the  prodigy  of  which  it  tells 
would  have  made  so  great  a  stir  that  ample  record 
of  it  would  have  been  preserved.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to 
account  for  the  way  in  which  it  missed  coming  to  the 
eye  for  which  it  was  intended.  In  that  early  time 
many  and  many  of  our  Order,  going  out  to  preach 
God's  Word  among  the  barbarians,  came  happily  to 
that  end  which  is  the  happiest  end  attainable  in  God's 
service:  a  blessed  martyrdom."  Fray  Antonio's  voice 
trembled  with  deep  feeling  as  he  spoke,  and  I  remem 
bered  that  Don  Rafael  had  told  me  that  this  good 
brother,  it  was  believed,  himself  longed  for  a  death  so 
glorious.  "And  being  thus  slain,"  Fray  Antonio  in  a 
moment  continued,  "the  mission  stations  which  they 
had  established  were  left  desolate,  with  what  they 
held — save  such  few  things  as  might  be  cared  for  by 
the  savage  murderers — remaining  there  within  them. 
In  later  times,  as  the  conquering  Spaniards  overspread 
the  land,  many  of  these  stations  were  found,  with  noth 
ing  to  tell  save  nameless  bones  of  those  who  had  died 
there  that  God's  will  might  be  done. 

"  It  is  my  conjecture,  therefore,  that  this  parchment 
case  was  found — how  many  years  after  the  death  of 
him  who  owned  it,  who  can  tell? — in  one  of  the  many 
stations  that  the  savages  thus  ravaged ;  that  the  sol 
diers,  or  whoever  may  have  found  it,  brought  it  hither, 
the  nearest  important  abiding-place  of  our  Order;  and 
(b&t,  being  carelessly  examined, it  was  carelessly  thimyn 


52  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

aside  when  found  to  contain,  apparently,  only  the  little 
record  of  the  work  which  our  dead  brother  accom 
plished  before  God  granted  him  his  crown  of  earthly 
martyrdom,  and  so  made  quick  his  way  to  heaven. 
Had  the  letter  ever  reached  that  'first  hand'  for  which 
the  writer  says  he  waits  to  send  it  by,  it  assuredly 
would  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  gold-loving 
Spanish  conquerors,  and  armies  would  have  gone  forth 
to  answer  it.  But  our  dead  brother,  having  written  it 
and  placed  it  in  this  fold  of  the  parchment  for  safety 
until  the  chance  to  send  it  southward  should  come,  was 
cut  off  from  life  suddenly ;  and  so,  of  the  prodigious 
marvel  of  which  knowledge  had  so  strangely  come  to 
him,  only  this  mute  and  hidden  record  remained." 

"But  the  letter  itself?"  I  asked,  with  more  energy 
than  politeness.  "  What  is  the  story  that  it  contains  ? 
What  is  this  mystery  ?  Tell  me  of  it  first,  and  then 
explain  as  much  as  you  please  afterwards." 

Fray  Antonio  smiled  at  me  kindly.  "  Ah,  you  too 
are  becoming  excited,"  he  said.  "But,  truly,  it  is  not 
fair  that  I  should  thus  have  kept  you  waiting.  In 
deed,  I  am  so  full  of  it  all  that  I  forget  that  as  yet  you 
know  nothing.  Come  out  with  me  into  the  court-yard, 
where  the  light  is  stronger — for  the  writing  is  very 
faint  and  pale — and  I  will  read  you  this  letter  in  which 
so  wonderful  a  story  is  set  forth." 

Together  we  passed  out  through  a  little  door  in  the 
rear  of  the  sacristy  into  what  had  been  the  inner  and 
smaller  cloistered  court-yard  of  the  old  convent — a 
lovely  place  in  which  a  fountain  set  in  a  quaint  stone 
basin  sparkled,  and  where  warm  sunshine  fell  upon  the 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  53 

rippling  water  and  upon  beds  of  sweet-smelling  flow 
ers.  And  here  it  was,  standing  among  the  flowers  in 
the  sunshine,  beside  the  quaint  fountain,  that  Fray  An 
tonio  read  to  me  the  letter — that  in  this  strange  fash 
ion  had  come  to  us  from  a  hand  dead  for  much  more 
than  three  centuries,  and  that  yet  brought  to  us  two  a 
vital  message  that  wholly  was  to  shape  our  destinies. 


IV. 


THE  letter  was  without  date,  but,  being  addressed 
to  the  Bishop  Zumarraga,  the  phrase  that  occurred  in 
it  —  "  this  New  Spain,  wherein,  Very  Reverend  Father, 
you  have  labored  in  God's  service  this  year  and  more 
past"  —  showed  that  1530  was  the  year  in  which  it  was 
written.  As  to  place,  there  practically  was  no  clew  at 
all.  The  writer  referred  repeatedly  to  "  this  mission  of 
Santa  Marta,  in  the  Chichimeca  country"  —  but  the 
mission  had  perished  utterly  but  a  little  while  after  it 
was  founded;  and  at  that  period  the  term  Chichimeca 
country  was  used  by  the  Spaniards  in  speaking  of  any 
part  of  Mexico  where  wild  Indians  were. 

Being  shorn  of  a  portion  of  its  pious  verbiage,  and 
somewhat  modernized  in  style,  the  ancient  Spanish  of 
this  letter  contained  in  effect  these  English  words  : 


REVEREND   FATHER,  —  This   present  letter 
will  be  sent  forward  to  you  by  the  first  hand  by  which 


54  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

it  may  be  hence  transmitted ;  and  in  your  wisdom, 
with  God's  grace  also  guiding  you,  I  doubt  not  that 
you  will  take  measures  for  sending  missionaries  of  our 
Order  to  the  great  company  of  the  heathen  whose 
whereabouts  I  am  to  disclose  to  you.  And  also,  no 
doubt — keeping  the  matter  secret  from  the  pestilent 
Oidores  of  the  Audiencia — you  will  communicate  this 
strange  matter  through  safe  channels  to  our  lord  the 
King :  that  with  our  missionaries  an  army  may  go 
forth,  and  that  so  the  great  treasure  of  which  I  give 
tidings  may  be  wrested  from  the  heathen  to  be  used 
for  God's  glory  and  the  enriching  of  our  lord  the 
King. 

"  Know,  Veiy  Reverend  Father,  that  a  month  since, 
I  being  then  abroad  from  this  mission  of  Santa  Marta, 
preaching  God's  word  in  a  certain  village  of  the  Chi- 
chimecas  that  is  five  leagues  to  the  northward,  was  so 
strengthened  by  God's  grace  that  many  of  the  heathen 
professed  our  holy  faith  and  were  baptized.  And  of 
these  was  one  who  among  that  tribe  was  held  a  cap 
tive.  Which  captive,  as  I  found,  was  of  the  nation 
that  dwelt  in  Tenochtitlan  before  our  great  captain, 
Don  Fernando  Cortes,  reduced  that  city  to  submission. 
But  little  of  earthly  life  remained  to  this  poor  captive 
when  I,  unworthily  but  happily,  opened  to  him  the 
way  to  life  glorious  and  eternal;  for  in  the  fight  that 
happened  when  he  was  captured — of  which  fight  he 
alone  of  all  his  companions  had  survived — he  was  sore 
ly  wounded;  and  though  in  time  his  wounds  had  heal 
ed  he  remained  but  a  weakly  man,  and  the  service  to 
which  his  captors  forced  him  was  hard.  So  it  was 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  55 

that  I  had  but  little  more  than  time  to  put  him  in  the 
way  leading  to  heaven  before  his  spirit  gladly  forsook 
its  weary  body  and  went  thence  from  earth. 

"That  he  truly  was  a  convert  to  our  holy  faith  I 
am  well  assured,  by  the  signs  of  a  spirit  meet  for  re 
pentance  which  he  showed  in  his  own  person;  and  still 
more  by  his  strong  longing,  most  earnestly  expressed, 
that  this  same  glorious  faith  of  freedom  should  be 
preached  to  a  certain  great  company  of  his  people, 
whereof  he  most  secretly  told  me,  who  still  remain 
bound  in  the  bondage  of  idolatry.  And  it  is  what  he 
told  me  of  these,  Very  Reverend  Father,  and  of  the 
marvellous  hidden  city  wherein  they  dwell,  and  of  the 
mighty  treasure  which  there  they  guard,  that  I  desire 
now  to  bring  to  your  private  knowledge,  before  it  shall 
be  known  of  by  the  Oidores,  and  through  you  to  our 
lord  the  King.  Here  now  is  the  whole  of  the  mystery 
that  he  recited: 

"  In  very  ancient  times,  he  said,  his  people  came 
forth  from  seven  caves  which  are  in  the  western  re 
gion  of  this  continent,  and  wandered  long  in  search  of 
an  abiding-place.  And  in  the  course  of  ages  it  came 
to  pass  that  a  certain  wise  king  ruled  over  them  to 
whom  was  given  the  gift  of  prophecy.  Which  king, 
by  name  Chaltzantzin,  foretold  that  in  the  later  ages 
there  should  come  an  army  of  fair  and  bearded  men 
from  the  eastward,  who  would  prevail  over  the  people 
of  his  race:  slaying  many,  and  making  of  the  remain 
der  slaves.  Being  sorely  troubled  by  thought  of  what 
he  thus  foresaw,  he  set  himself  to  provide  a  source  of 
strength  whereon  his  descendants  in  that  later  time 


56  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

might  draw  in  the  hour  of  their  peril — and  so  save 
themselves  from  cruel  death  and  from  yet  crueler 
slavery.  To  which  end,  in  a  certain  great  valley  that 
lies  securely  hidden  among  the  mountains  of  this  con 
tinent,  he  caused  to  be  built  a  walled  city;  and  this 
city  he  then  peopled  with  the  very  bravest  and  strong 
est  of  his  race.  And  he  made  for  those  dwelling  there 

O 

a  perpetual  law  that  commanded  that  all  such  as  showed 
themselves  when  come  to  maturity  to  be  weak  or  mal 
formed  in  body,  or  coward  of  heart,  then  should  be  put 
to  death ;  to  the  end  that  their  natural  increase  ever 
should  be  of  the  same  stout  stuff  as  themselves,  and 
also  that  there  might  be  no  lack  of  victims  for  the  sac 
rifices  which  are  acceptable  to  their  barbarous  gods. 
And  thus  he  provided  that  in  the  time  of  need  there 
should  be  here  a  strong  army  of  valiant  warriors,  ready 
to  come  forth  to  fight  against  the  fair-faced  bearded 
men,  and  by  conquering  them  to  save  safe  the  land. 

"  And  yet  more  provision  did  King  Chaltzantzin 
make  for  the  strengthening  and  the  saving  of  his  race 
in  the  later  ages.  Within  this  walled  city  of  Culhua- 
can  he  caused  to  be  builded  a  great  treasure-house, 
wherein  he  garnered  such  store  of  riches  as  never  was 
gathered  together  in  one  place  since  the  beginning  of 
the  world.  And  his  order  was  that  if  even  the  power 
of  the  army  which  should  go  forth  from  that  city  suf 
ficed  not  to  conquer  the  foreign  foemen,  then  should 
this  vast  treasure  be  used  to  buy  his  people's  ransom, 
that  they  might  not  perish  nor  be  enslaved. 

"  Having  set  all  which  great  matters  in  order,  King 
Chaltzantzin  came  forth  from  the  Valley  of  Aztlan, 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  57 

leaving  behind  him  the  noble  colony  that  he  had 
there  founded;  and  so  with  his  people  wandered  va 
grant — even  as  their  gods  had  commanded  that  they 
should  go  until  by  a  sign  from  heaven  they  should  be 
shown  where  was  to  be  their  lasting  home.  And  that 
the  fulfilling  of  his  purpose  might  be  made  the  more 
sure,  he  brought  his  people  forth  from  that  valley  by 
most  perilous  passes  and  through  strait  ways  so  that 
they  might  not  return  thither  ;  and  that  they  who  re 
mained  might  not  follow,  he  closed  the  way  behind 
him  with  mighty  bars. 

"  In  the  fulness  of  time  this  wise  king  died,  and  oth 
ers  reigned  in  his  stead  ;  and  at  last  the  ages  of  wan 
dering  of  the  Aztec  tribe  were  ended  by  the  sign  com 
ing  from  heaven  whereby  they  knew  that  the  Valley 
of  Anahuac  was  to  be  their  abiding  home.  There 
built  they  the  city  of  Tenochtitlan  :  which  city  the 
valiant  captain,  Don  Fernando  Cortes,  conquered  this 
short  time  since — and  by  conquest  of  it  verified  pre 
cisely  the  prophecy  that  King  Chaltzantzin  uttered  in 
very  ancient  times. 

"  But  the  captive  Indian  told  me,  further,  that  before 
the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  there  was  seen  the  sign 
of  warning  that  King  Chaltzantzin  had  promised  should 
tell  when  the  danger  that  he  had  so  well  prepared  for 
should  be  near ;  which  sign  was  the  going  out  of  the 
sacred  fire  that  the  priests  guarded  on  a  certain  high 
hill.  Meantime,  all  knowledge  of  their  brethren  hid 
den  in  the  Valley  of  Aztlan  for  their  help  in  time 
of  peril  was  lost  to  the  Aztec  tribe  in  dim  tradition; 
for  the  King  had  commanded,  in  order  that  his  people 


58  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

might  not  fall  into  weakness  through  trusting  in  the 
strength  of  others  for  protection,  that  no  open  record 
of  the  colony  that  he  had  founded  should  be  preserved. 
Therefore  was  this  matter  a  secret  known  only  to  a 
few  priests  whose  blood  was  of  the  royal  line  ;  in 
whose  keeping,  also,  was  the  token  that  King  Chalt- 
zantzin  had  commanded  should  be  sent  to  the  walled 
city  of  Culhuacan  when  its  warriors  were  to  be  called 
forth,  and  a  map  whereby  the  way  thither  was  made 
plain.  And  so  it  was  that,  when  the  sacred  fire  ceased 
burning,  the  priests  were  alert  for  the  threatened  dan 
ger  ;  and  when  the  landing  of  the  Spaniards — *  fair- 
faced  and  bearded  men,  coming  from  the  eastward ' — 
was  known  to  them,  they  warned  their  king,  Monte- 
zuma,  that  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  and  that  the 
time  for  sending  for  the  army  and  the  treasure  had 
come. 

"  For  the  bearer  of  this  message  was  chosen  a  priest 
of  the  blood  royal,  with  whom  went  also  a  younger 
priest,  his  son.  And  with  these  went  a  guard,  whereof 
the  captive  Indian  was  one,  that  they  might  be  carried 
in  safety  through  the  region  where  the  wild  Indians 
were.  But  the  valor  of  the  guard  was  useless,  for  the 
wild  Indians  set  upon  them  in  such  prodigious  num 
bers —  in  a  place  not  far  from  where  is  this  present 
mission  of  Santa  Marta — that  all  of  that  company,  save 
only  this  single  Indian  who  was  wounded  and  made 
captive,  was  overpowered  and  slain.  Yet  among  the 
slain,  the  Indian  said,  was  not  found  the  body  of  the 
priest's  son ;  nor  was  there  found  on  the  priest's  body 
the  token  that  he  had  been  the  bearer  of,  nor  the  map 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  59 

chat  showed  the  way.  For  a  time  the  Indian  had 
hoped  that  the  younger  priest  had  escaped  out  of  the 
fight  alive,  and  had  carried  to  them  who  dwelt  in  the 
walled  city  of  Culhuacan  the  message  of  summons;  but 
as  the  years  went  onward  and  nothing  came  of  it,  this 
hope  had  died  within  his  heart. 

"  This,  Very  Reverend  Father,  is  the  strange  story 
told  me  by  this  Indian;  who  spoke  with  the  urgent 
sincerity  of  one  devout  in  the  Christian  faith  who 
knew  by  sensible  perception  that  his  death  was  near 
at  hand.  Eagerly  he  begged  that  to  these  Gentiles, 
his  brethren  by  blood,  might  be  sent  in  their  secret 
fastnesses  the  blessed  Word  whereby  they  would  be 
delivered  from  the  chains  of  their  idolatry  into  the 
freedom  of  Christian  grace.  And,  surely,  the  treasure 
that  they  ward  very  well  may  be  wrested  from  these 
heathen  that  it  may  be  used  in  part  in  this  land  in 
God's  service,  and  that  in  part  it  may  go  to  the  just 
enriching  of  our  lord  the  King. 

"  Nor  is  the  matter  one  that  is  difficult  of  accom 
plishment.  For  a  token  which  shall  give  us  the  right 
of  entry  into  this  walled  city  of  Culhuacan  we  need 
only  the  Word  of  God  and  a  sufficient  force  of  men 
well  armed  with  swords  and  matchlocks.  Nor  is  it 
any  bar  to  our  quest  that  the  map  showing  the  way 
thither  has  been  lost.  The  Indian  told  me  that  this 
way  is  so  plainly  marked  that  one  who  had  found  it 
could  not  lose  it  again.  For  at  spaces  of  not  more 
than  a  league  or  two  apart,  upon  flat  places  of  the  rock 
convenient  for  such  purpose,  was  cut  the  same  figure 
that  the  token  of  summons  had  engraved  upon  it;  and, 


60  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

with  this,  an  arrow  pointing  towards  where  the  next 
carving  would  be  found:  and  so  these  signs  went  on 
ward,  the  heathen  priest  had  told  him,  even  to  the 
very  entrance  of  the  Valley  of  Aztlan.  And  that  this 
matter  might  be  made  sure  to  me,  he  led  me  to  a  spot 
but  a  league  to  the  westward  of  this  mission  of  Santa 
Marta  and  there  showed  me  one  of  these  signs,  with 
the  pointing  arrow  carved  also  on  the  rock  beside  it— 
of  all  of  which  the  drawing  here  made  is  an  indifferent 
good  copy.  And  by  that  guiding  arrow  we  went  on 
ward  to  another  like  carving  at  a  little  less  than  two 
leagues  away  to  the  northward.  Therefore,  Very  Rev 
erend  Father,  I,  of  my  own  knowledge,  am  a  witness  to 
a  part,  at  least,  of  the  truth  of  what  that  Indian  told. 
And  with  all  my  heart  do  I  add  mine  own  entreaty  to 
his  simple  pleadings  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of 
his  brethren;  and  also  do  I  venture  to  entreat  that 
among  those  who  go  to  carry  the  Word  of  God  to  this 
hidden  heathen  host  I  may  be  one ;  so  that  I,  though 
all  unworthy  of  such  honor,  shall  have  a  part  in  ren 
dering  to  God  so  glorious  a  service. 

"The  more  urgently  do  I  ask  this  favor  because 
here,  in  this  mission  of  Santa  Marta,  it  is  but  too  clear 
to  me  that  I  am  laboring  in  a  barren  field.  Some  hun 
dreds  of  the  heathen  I  have  indeed  baptized;  but 
among  all  these  who  have  professed  our  Christian 
faith  scarce  a  score  show  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
a  true  regeneration.  Many,  I  am  sadly  sure,  still  prac 
tise  in  secret  their  old  idolatry — and  find  little  more 
than  mere  amusement  in  the  rites  of  our  most  holy 
Church.  When  they  tire  of  this  novelty,  which,  in 


61 

the  case  of  folk  of  such  light  natures  no  doubt  will  be 
in  a  little  while,  they  will  return  openly  to  their  idola 
try;  and  it  probably  may  happen  that  they  then  will 
sacrifice  me  to  their  heathen  gods.  That,  in  one  way 
or  another,  they  do  intend  to  kill  me,  and  that  soon,  I 
feel  quite  sure.  I  am  but  twenty -three  years  old,  Very 
Reverend  Father;  and  that  is  an  early  time  in  life  to 
end  it.  No  doubt,  also,  in  killing  me  they  will  use 
torture.  And  I  long  fervently  to  live,  not  only  for 
the  pleasure  of  it,  but  also  that  I  may  do  good  service 
to  God,  and  to  our  Father  Saint  Francis,  by  saving 
many  heathen  souls.  Therefore  I  beg  that  when  the 
army  marches  to  the  reduction  of  this  hidden  city  that 
I  may  be  one  of  our  brethren  who  will  go  with  it,  to 
hold  by  tender  preaching  of  God's  goodness  and  mercy 
such  heathen  as  may  remain  alive  after  our  soldiers 
shall  have  conquered  that  city  with  the  sword. 

"  I  commend  you,  Very  Reverend  Father,  to  the  care 
of  Our  Lord  in  all  things,  and  pray  that  he  may  guard 
your  most  illustrious  and  very  reverend  person,  and 
protect  you  in  all  matters  of  your  temporal  and  spirit 
ual  estate.  And  I  am  the  least  worthy  of  your  serv 
ants,  FRANCISCO  DE  LOS  ANGELES." 

"  Of  a  truth,"  said  Fray  Antonio,  as  he  ceased  read 
ing,  "  this  brother  of  mine  adhered  closely  to  the  truth 
when  he  subscribed  himself  the  least  worthy  of  the 
bishop's  servants.  Were  it  not  here  in  his  own  hand, 
I  should  refuse  to  believe  that  one  of  our  Order  at  that 
time  in  New  Spain  had  any  thought  of  saving  his  own 
life  when  God's  work  was  to  be  done." 


62  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

For  myself,  I  must  own  that  my  heart  was  deeply 
touched  by  the  very  humanity  of  this  poor  Brother 
Francisco's  cry  for  help  that  came  up  out  of  the  dead 
depths  of  the  past ;  and  that  was  the  more  keen  and 
pitiful  because  the  cruel  death  at  the  hands  of  the  bar 
barous  Indians  that  he  so  dreaded  assuredly  had  over- 
taken  him.  His  could  not  have  been  a  strong  nature, 
and  it  was  the  weaker  because  of  his  youth;  but,  after 
all,  it  was  the  nature  that  God  had  given  him,  and 
there  must  have  been  a  strain  of  strength  in  it,  else  he 
never  would  have  braved  the  dangers  which  overcame 
him  in  the  end.  And  he  was  "  but  twenty-three  years 
old  " ! 

Yet  when  I  sought  to  lead  Fray  Antonio's  mind  to 
such  consideration  of  the  matter  he  replied,  sternly: 
"This  weak  brother  failed  in  his  duty.  To  him  God 
gave  an  opportunity  to  die  gloriously  for  the  Faith; 
but,  instead  of  accepting  that  noble  reward  joyfully, 
his  strongest  wish  was  that  he  might  find  a  way  by 
which  he  might  escape  alive.  Had  all  professors  of 
the  Christian  creed  so  conducted  themselves,  that  creed 
long  since  would  have  perished  from  off  the  earth. 
Semen  est  sanguis  Christianorum  is  well  said  of  Ter- 
tullian  the  Carthaginian,  and,  later,  of  the  blessed 
Saint  Jerome." 

As  Fray  Antonio  thus  spoke  he  so  drew  up  his  slight 
figure,  and  in  his  sweet  voice  was  a  ring  of  such  com 
manding  sternness,  that  he  was  for  the  moment  trans 
formed.  Here  was  a  man  wholly  different  from  the 
gentle  scholar  whom  I  had  already  learned  to  love.  In 
th©  glimpse  that  I  thus  ha3  of  his  underlying 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  63 

acter  I  saw  vivified  again  the  spirit  of  the  early  Chris 
tian  Church;  and  I  understood,  as  I  never  had  under 
stood  before,  of  what  stuff  they  were  made  who  heard 
pronounced  upon  them  the  sentence,  "  To  the  lions  !" 
and  joyfully  accepted  their  cruel  fate,  defiant  of  what 
man  might  do  to  them  because  of  the  perfection  of 
their  faith  in  the  merciful  forgiveness  and  upholding 
steadfastness  of  their  Christian  God. 

But  in  a  moment  a  look  of  sadness  and  regret  came 
into  Fray  Antonio's  face,  and  he  added,  sorrowfully: 
"God  forgive  me  for  thus  judging  my  brother,  who 
long  since  was  judged  !  Who  can  say  that  when  the 
hour  of  trial  came  he  did  not  meet  his  death  as  bravely 
as  any  martyr  of  them  all  ?  And  who  can  say,"  he 
went  on,  but  speaking  softly,  as  one  communing  with  his 
own  soul,  "how  I  myself —  But  God  gives  strength." 
And  then  he  ceased  to  speak  aloud,  but  his  lips  moved 
silently  as  though  in  prayer.  As  I  close  my  eyes  I  see 
him  again  as  clearly  as  I  saw  him  then — standing  be 
side  the  old  stone  fountain,  amid  the  flowers,  in  the 
gladness  of  the  bright  sunshine;  in  his  eyes  a  strange, 
far-away  look,  as  though  the  future  for  a  moment  had 
been  opened  to  him ;  and  on  his  strong,  fine  face  a 
sternly  resolute  expression,  which  yet  was  softened  by 
the  traits  which  were  so  strong  within  him  of  holiness 
and  gentleness  and  love.  I  cannot  know  what  Fray 
Antonio  prayed  for,  there  in  the  old  convent  garden; 
but  I  can  guess,  and  I  am  well  persuaded  that  his 
prayer  was  heard.  Truly,  I  think  that  it  was  some 
thing  more  than  chance  that  led  us  thus  at  first  to 
talk,  not  of  the  wonder  that  was  in  Brother  Fran- 


64  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Cisco's  letter,  but  of  Brother  Francisco  himself  and  of 
his  end. 

And  then  the  subject-matter  in  chief  of  the  letter 
claimed  our  attention.  In  itself  this  was  sufficiently 
marvellous;  but  what  increased  the  marvel  of  it  was 
the  conviction,  strong  within  us  both,  that  if  the  hid 
den  city  of  Culhuacan  ever  had  existed  at  all  it  existed 
still.  Our  belief  was  so  entirely  logical  that,  assuming 
the  truth  of  the  story  told  by  the  Indian  captive,  it 
admitted  nowhere  of  a  doubt.  That  the  city  had  been 
hidden  for  a  long  period,  through  at  least  several  hun 
dreds  of  years,  from  the  Aztecs  themselves,  and  that 
no  knowledge  of  it  had  been  conveyed  to  them  by 
wild  Indians  who  had  come  by  chance  upon  the  valley 
wherein  it  was,  was  evidence  enough  of  the  security  of 
its  concealment.  There  was  nothing  surprising,  conse 
quently,  in  the  fact  that  the  Spaniards  had  not  discov 
ered  it  when  they  first  overran  Mexico,  nor  that  it  had 
remained  unknown  to  the  Mexicans  of  modern  times. 
As  is  well  known,  there  are  to  this  day  prodigious  areas 
in  Mexico  which  remain  utterly  unexplored.  In  the 
region  west  of  Tampico  ;  in  the  north-western  States 
of  Sinaloa,  Durango,  and  Sonora;  or  in  the  far  south 
ern  States  of  Oajaca  and  Chiapas,  a  valley  as  great  as 
that  in  which  the  City  of  Mexico  now  stands  might  lie 
utterly  hidden  and  unknown.  And  if,  as  the  Indian's 
narrative  implied,  this  particular  valley  had  been  se 
lected  deliberately  because  it  was  so  hidden  and  so  in 
accessible,  and  if  the  described  precautions  had  been 
taken  to  isolate  its  inhabitants,  it  very  well  might  have 
continued  to  be  lost  in  its  deep  concealment  through 


MONTEZUMA'S  MESSENGER.  65 

an  almost  infinite  range  of  years.  That  it  never  had 
been  found  since  the  Spaniards  came  into  Mexico  we 
were  absolutely  certain,  for  the  outcry  over  so  great  a 
wonder  would  have  echoed  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  civilized  world.  Finally,  in  the  name  of  the  city, 
Culhuacan,  we  had  a  substantial  fact  which  connected 
the  extraordinary  story  that  had  come  to  us  so  strange 
ly  with  matters  within  our  own  knowledge.  For  this 
name  not  only  is  given  in  the  Aztec  traditions  as  that 
of  the  sacred  spot  in  which  their  god  Huitzilopochtli 
spoke  to  them,  but  survives  until  this  present  day  in 
the  name  of  the  village  that  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  sa 
cred  mountain,  in  the  Valley  of  Mexico,  called  by  the 
Aztecs  the  Hill  of  Huitzachtla,  and  by  the  Spaniards 
the  Hill  of  the  Star — on  which,  at  the  end  of  each 
cycle  of  fifty-two  years,  the  sacred  fire  was  renewed. 
Surely  it  was  no  accident  that  had  caused  the  name 
Culhuacan  to  be  given  to  this  village  on  this  sacred 
spot;  rather  must  it  have  been  so  named  by  the  elect 
few  to  whom  the  secret  was  known  as  a  perpetual  re 
minder  to  them  of  the  reserve  of  men  and  treasure 
upon  which  they  could  draw  should  danger  threaten 
their  country  and  their  gods. 

"  No  doubt,"  said  Fray  Antonio,  "  what  is  here  told 
of  a  secret  record,  known  only  to  the  priests,  supplies 
one  of  the  lapses  in  the  pictured  history  of  the  Aztec 
migration;  but  as  we  know  not  which  break  in  the  his 
tory  is  thus  filled  in,  we  have  no  clew  whatever  as  to 
the  whereabouts  of  this  hidden  place.  Nor  have  we 
any  clew  as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  mission  of  Santa 
Marta,  whence  we  might  go  onward,  guided  by  the 
5 


66  THE    AZTEC   TREASUBE-HOUSE. 

carvings  upon  the  rocks,  until  we  found  at  last  the 
place  we  sought.  The  mission  of  Santa  Marta,  where 
my  brother  Francisco  long  ago  ministered,  might  have 
been  anywhere  in  all  Mexico  ;  and  being  so  small  a 
mission,  and  enduring  for  so  short  a  period,  it  is  not 
likely  that  any  record  of  it  anywhere  has  been  pre 
served.  Had  we  but  the  map  and  the  token  of  which 
my  brother  writes,  our  way  would  be  clear ;  without 
these  guides  it  well  may  be  a  toilsome  way  and  long. 
Yet  do  I  know,"  Fray  Antonio  continued,  earnestly, 
"that  I  shall  find  this  hidden  city.  In  my  soul  is  a 
strong  and  glad  conviction  that  God  has  called  me  to 
the  most  glorious  work  of  carrying  to  the  heathen 
dwelling  there  the  message  of  His  saving  love.  He 
has  worked  one  miracle  already  to  call  me  to  this 
duty;  in  His  own  good  time  and  way  I  doubt  not  that 
He  will  work  another  miracle  by  which  I  may  be  set 
in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment." 

As  Fray  Antonio  spoke  of  the  map  of  the  Aztec 
migration,  a  hope  came  into  my  heart  that,  as  I  con 
sidered  it,  seemed  surely  to  be  a  certainty.  In  the  ex 
citement  of  listening  to  this  strange  letter — concerning 
which  not  the  least  strange  matter  was,  that  between 
the  writing  and  the  reading  of  it  had  passed  three  hun 
dred  and  fifty  years — I  had  forgotten  my  own  discov 
eries,  and  that  my  purpose  was  to  show  him  the  pict 
ured  paper  and  the  curious  piece  of  gold.  But  as  he 
spoke  of  the  migration  this  matter  was  called  to  my 
mind  suddenly;  and  then  in  an  instant  the  conviction 
thrilled  through  me  that  the  clew  which  would  lead  us 
to  the  hidden  city  was  in  my  possession. 


THE    ENGINEER    AND   THE    LOST-FREIGHT   MAN.       67 

"God  already  has  worked  that  other  miracle,"  I 
cried,  joyfully.  "  Here  is  the  token,  and  here  is  the 
map  that  shows  the  way!"  and,  so  speaking,  I  opened 
the  snake-skin  bag  that  I  had  taken  from  the  breast  of 
the  dead  Cacique  and  drew  forth  its  precious  contents. 

For  myself,  I  needed  no  additional  proof  that  here 
was  all  that  was  needful  to  guide  us  to  the  hidden  city. 
Yet  was  I  glad  that  in  so  grave  a  matter  we  should 
have  added  to  absolute  conviction  the  weight  of  abso 
lute  proof.  And  this  we  had  most  clearly;  for  Fray 
Antonio,  cooler  than  I,  compared  the  drawing  in  the 
letter  with  the  engraving  upon  the  piece  of  gold,  and 
found  the  two  to  be  essentially  identical,  save  that  the 
engraving  lacked  the  sign  of  the  arrow  pointing  the 
way. 

"  And  now,"  I  cried,  enthusiastically,  "  for  such  dis 
coveries  in  archaeology  as  the  world  has  never  known !" 

"And  now,"  said  Fray  Antonio,  speaking  slowly  and 
reverently,  "  for  such  glorious  work  in  God's  service  as 
has  been  granted  but  rarely  to  man  to  do!" 


V. 

THE    ENGINEER    AND   THE   LOST-FREIGHT  MAN. 

THAT  the  weight  of  a  strange  destiny  was  pressing 
upon  us,  neither  Fray  Antonio  nor  I  for  a  moment 
doubted.  It  was  something  more  than  chance,  we  be 
lieved,  that  had  brought  us  together,  and  that  there 
after,  by  such  extraordinary  means,  had  put  into  our 


68  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

hands,  in  places  far  asunder,  yet  at  almost  precisely 
the  same  moment,  these  two  ancient  papers  ;  either  of 
which,  alone,  would  have  been  meaningless;  but  the 
two  of  which,  together,  pointed  clearly  the  way  to  a 
discovery  so  wonderful  that  the  like  of  it  was  not  to  be 
found  in  all  the  history  of  the  world, 

At  the  moment  that  I  comprehended  how  great  an 
adventure  was  before  me,  and  what  honorable  fame  I 
was  like  to  get  out  of  it,  I  determined  that  I  would 
keep  the  whole  matter  secret  from  my  fellow-archae 
ologists  until  I  could  tell  them,  not  what  I  intended 
doing,  but  what  I  actually  had  done — for  I  had  no  de 
sire  to  divide  with  any  one  the  honors  that  fairly  would 
be  mine  when  I  published  to  the  world  the  result  of  my 
investigation  of  this  hidden  community  that  had  sur 
vived,  uncontaminated,  from  prehistoric  times.  Having 
this  strong  desire  within  me,  it  was  with  great  pleas 
ure  that  I  acceded  to  Fray  Antonio's  request  that  our 
project  of  discovery  should  not  be  published  abroad. 
His  motive  for  secrecy,  as  I  presently  perceived,  was 
bred  of  the  one  single  strain  of  human  weakness  that 
ever  I  found  in  him.  Even  as  I  was  determined  that 
no  other  archaeologist  should  share  with  me  the  honor 
of  discovering  this  primitive  community,  so  was  Fray 
Antonio  determined  that  to  him  alone  should  belong 
the  glory  of  carrying  into  that  region  of  dense  heathen 
darkness  the  radiant  splendor  of  the  Christian  faith. 
If  this  were  sin  on  his  part,  it  certainly  was  a  sin  that 
he  shared  with  many  saints  long  since  in  Paradise. 
Even  the  blessed  Saint  Francis  himself,  when,  at  the 
Council  of  Mats,  he  portioned  out  among  his  followers 


THE    ENGINEER   AND    THE    LOST-FREIGHT    MAN.       69 

the  heathen  world  that  they  might  preach  everywhere 
Christianity,  reserved  for  himself  Syria  and  Egypt;  in 
the  hope  that  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  countries  he 
might  crown  his  labors  by  suffering  a  glorious  martyr 
dom.  And  perhaps  in  this  matter  Fray  Antonio  was 
not  unmindful  of  the  example  set  him  by  the  great 
founder  of  the  Order  to  which  he  belonged. 

But  while  we  were  thus  firmly  decided  to  keep  to 
ourselves  the  honors  that  so  great  an  archaeological 
discovery  and  so  great  a  Christian  conquest  must  bring 
to  us  severally,  we  perceived  that  it  would  not  be 
the  part  of  prudence  to  essay  our  adventure  without 
any  companions  at  all.  Some  portion  of  the  country 
through  which  we  were  to  pass  we  knew  to  be  fre 
quented  by  very  dangerous  tribes  of  Indians,  against 
the  assaults  of  which  two  lonely  men — neither  of  whom 
had  any  knowledge  whatever  of  the  art  of  war — could 
make  but  a  poor  stand.  And  even  should  we  escape 
the  wild  Indians,  we  knew  that  we  might  get  into 
many  evil  straits  in  which  our  lives  might  be  ended, 
yet  through  which  a  larger  company  might  pass  in 
safety.  And  for  my  own  part,  I  must  confess  that  I 
had  a  strong  desire  to  have  with  me  some  of  my  own 
countrymen.  For  the  gallantry  of  the  Mexicans,  which 
gallantry  has  been  proved  a  thousand  times,  I  have  the 
highest  respect;  yet  is  it  a  natural  feeling  among  Anglo- 
Saxons  that  when  it  conies  to  facing  dangers  in  which 
death  looms  largely,  and  especially  when  it  comes  to  a 
few  men  against  a  company  of  savages,  and  standing 
back  to  ba«k  and  fighting  to  the  very  last,  Anglo-Saxon 
hearts  are  found  to  be  the  stanchest,  and  Anglo-Saxon 


70  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

backs  to  be  the  stoutest  which  can  be  thus  ranged 
together.  But  in  our  own  case  I  did  not  at  all  see 
whence  such  an  Anglo-Saxon  contingent  was  to  be  ob 
tained. 

We  had  been  talking  over  this  matter  of  a  fighting 
force  one  afternoon  in  Fray  Antonio's  sacristy — where 
our  many  colloquies  were  held,  for  we  moved  with  a 
thoughtful  deliberation  in  setting  agoing  our  advent 
ure — and  we  had  come  almost  to  the  determination  of 
organizing  a  little  force  of  Otomi  Indians,  and  calling 
upon  two  brave  young  gentlemen  of  Fray  Antonio's  ac 
quaintance  to  join  us  as  lieutenants.  Although  I  was 
willing  to  adopt  this  plan,  since  no  other  was  open 
to  us,  I  was  far  from  fancying  it ;  both  for  the  reason 
which  I  have  already  named,  and  also  for  the  reason — 
and  this  Fray  Antonio  admitted  was  not  without  foun 
dation  in  probability  —  that  our  young  allies  would 
be  more  than  likely,  by  their  indiscreet  disclosures,  to 
make  our  purpose  fully  known.  Therefore,  it  was  in 
no  very  pleasant  frame  of  mind,  our  conference  being 
ended,  that  I  returned  to  my  hotel. 

As  I  entered  the  hotel  court-yard  I  heard  the  sound 
of  Pablo's  mouth-organ,  and  with  this  much  laughter 
and  some  talk  in  English;  and  as  I  fairly  caught  sight 
of  the  merrymakers,  I  heard  said,  in  most  execrable 
Spanish,  "Here's  a  media  for  another  tune,  my  boy; 
and  if  you'll  make  the  donkey  dance  again  to  it,  I'll 
give  you  a  real." 

That  I  might  see  what  was  going  forward  without 
interrupting  it,  I  stepped  behind  one  of  the  stone  pil 
lars  that  upheld  the  gallery;  and  for  all  that  my  mind 


THE    ENGINEER    AND    THE    LOST-FREIGHT   MAN.       71 

was  in  no  mood  for  laughter  just  then,  I  could  not  but 
fall  to  laughing  at  what  I  saw. 

Over  on  the  far  side  of  the  court-yard,  with  Pablo 
and  El  Sabio,  were  two  men  whose  type  was  so  unmis 
takable  that  I  should  have  known  them  for  Americans 
had  I  met  them  in  the  moon.  One  was  a  tall,  wiry 
fellow,  with  a  vast  reach  of  arm,  and  a  depth  of  chest 
and  width  of  shoulders  which  showed  what  powerful 
engines  those  long  arms  of  his  were  when  he  set  them 
in  motion.  His  face  was  nearly  covered  by  a  heavy 
black  beard,  and  his  projecting  forehead  and  his  reso 
lute  black  eyes  under  it  gave  him  a  look  of  great  ener 
gy  and  force.  The  other  was  short  and  thick-set,  with 
a  big  round  head  stockily  upheld  on  a  thick  neck,  and 
with  a  good-humored  face,  which,  being  clean-shaven, 
was  chiefly  notable  for  the  breadth  and  the  squareness 
of  the  jaws.  He  had  merry  blue  eyes,  and  his  crown 
— he  was  holding  his  battered  Derby  hat  in  his  hand — 
was  as  bare  as  a  billiard  ball.  Below  timber-line,  as  he 
himself  expressed  it,  he  had  a  brush  of  close-cut  sandy- 
red  hair.  I  had  encountered  both  of  these  men  when 
I  first  came  to  Morelia,  and  during  two  or  three  weeks 
I  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  them,  for  we  had  met  daily 
at  our  meals;  and  the  more  that  I  had  seen  of  them  the 
better  was  I  disposed  to  like  them.  The  tall  man  was 
Rayburn,  a  civil  engineer  in  charge  of  construction  on 
the  advanced  line  of  the  new  railway;  the  other  was 
Young,  the  lost-freight  agent  of  the  railroad  company 
— whose  duty,  for  which  his  keen  quickness  peculiarly 
well  fitted  him,  was  that  of  looking  up  freight  which 
had  gone  astray  in  transit.  Both  of  these  men  had 


72  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

lived  long  in  rough  and  dangerous  regions,  and  both — 
as  I  then  instinctively  believed,  and  as  I  came  later  to 
know  fully — were  as  true  and  as  stanch  and  as  brave 
as  ever  men  could  be. 

What  they  were  laughing  at,  there  in  the  court-yard, 
was  an  extraordinary  performance  in  which  the  per 
formers  were  Pablo  and  El  Sabio.  With  a  grin  all 
over  the  parts  of  his  face  not  engaged  in  the  operation 
of  his  mouth-organ,  Pablo  was  rendering  on  that  instru 
ment  a  highly  Mexicanized  version  of  one  of  the  airs 
from  Pinafore  that  he  had  just  acquired  from  hearing 
Young  whistle  it.  To  this  music,  with  a  most  pained 
yet  determined  expression,  the  Wise  One  was  lifting 
his  feet  and  swaying  his  body  and  nodding  his  head  in 
a  sort  of  accompaniment,  his  movements  being  directed 
by  the  waving  of  Pablo's  disengaged  hand.  The  long 
ears  of  this  unfortunate  little  donkey  wagged  in  re 
monstrance  against  the  unreasonable  motions  demand 
ed  of  his  unlucky  legs,  and  every  now  and  then  he 
would  twitch  viciously  his  fuzzy  scrap  of  a  tail ;  but 
his  master  was  inexorable,  and  it  was  not  until  Pablo's 
own  desire  to  laugh  became  so  strong  that  he  no  longer 
could  play  the  mouth-organ  that  El  Sabio  was  given 
rest.  As  he  ended  his  dancing  I  must  say  that  there 
was  on  El  Sabio's  face  as  fine  an  expression  of  con 
tempt  as  the  face  of  a  donkey  ever  wore. 

"Hello,  Professor  !"  Young  called  out,  as  he  caught 
sight  of  me,  "  have  you  given  up  antiquities  an'  gone 
into  th'  circus  business?  This  outfit  that  you've  got 
here  will  make  your  fortune  when  you  get  it  back  into 
th'  States.  If  you  don't  want  to  run  it  yourself,  I'll 


THE    ENGINEER    AND    THE    LOST-FREIGHT    MAN.       73 

run  it  for  you  on  th'  shares  ;  an'  I  guess  Rayburn  '11 
be  glad  t'  go  along  as  clown.  He'd  make  a  good  clown, 
Rayburn  would.  You  see,  we're  both  of  us  out  of 
work,  an'  both  lookin'  for  a  job." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  being  out  of  work  ?"  I  asked, 
when  I  had  shaken  hands  with  them.  "  What's  become 
of  the  railroad  ?" 

"  Oh,  th'  railroad's  got  into  one  of  its  periodical 
bust-ups,"  Young  answered.  "A  row  among  the  bond 
holders,  an'  construction  stopped,  an'  working  expenses 
reduced,  an'  pretty  much  all  hands  bounced,  from  th' 
president  down.  I  guess  Rayburn  an'  I  can  stand  th' 
racket,  though,  if  th'  company  can.  I've  been  wantin' 

t'  get  out  of  this  d d  Greaser  country  for  a  good 

while,  an'  I  guess  now  I've  got  my  chance.  I  must 
say,  though,  I  wish  it  had  come  a  little  less  sudden,  for 
I  haven't  anything  in  particular  in  sight  over  in  God's 
country,  an'  Rayburn  hasn't  either.  So  if  you  want 
to  start  your  circus  we're  ready  for  you  right  away. 
Where  did  you  get  that  boy-an'-donkey  outfit  from, 
anyway?  They're  just  daisies,  both  of  'em  an'  no 
mistake  !" 

"  I  don't  know  that  you  can  count  on  me  for  a  clown, 
Professor,"  Rayburn  said,  "but  I  might  go  along  as 
door-keeper,  or  something  of  that  sort.  But  I  don't 
believe  that  Young  and  I  will  need  to  go  into  the  cir 
cus  business.  We  are  out  of  work,  that's  a  fact ;  but 
the  company  has  done  the  square  thing  by  us — paid  us 
up  in  full  to  the  end  of  next  month  and  fitted  us  out 
with  passes  to  St.  Louis.  We're  all  right.  Young  is 
heading  straight  for  home,  but  I  rather  think  that  I'll 


74  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

take  a  turn  around  the  country  and  see  what  the  civil 
ized  parts  of  it  look  like.  Ever  since  I  came  down 
here,  nearly,  I've  been  at  work  in  the  wilds.  I  want 
to  see  some  of  the  old  temples  and  things  too.  You 
can  put  me  up  to  that,  Professor.  Where's  a  good 
ruin  to  begin  on  ?" 

From  the  moment  that  I  laid  eyes  on  these  two  men, 
as  I  came  into  the  court  -  yard,  my  mind  was  made 
up  that  I  would  do  my  best  to  induce  them  to  join 
with  Fray  Antonio  and  me  in  our  search  for  the  hid 
den  city;  and  I  had  listened  very  gladly  to  what  they 
told  me,  for  it  showed  me  that  I  should  not  have  to 
ask  them  to  abandon  profitable  work  in  order  to  join 
in  our  doubtful  enterprise.  So  we  talked  lightly  about 
the  circus  and  other  indifferent  matters  for  a  while ; 
and  then  we  had  a  lively  supper  together  at  La  Sole- 
dad  (which  always  seemed  to  me  a  very  original  name 
for  a  restaurant),  and  then  I  brought  them  to  my  room 
to  smoke  their  cigars. 

It  was  while  they  were  in  the  comfortable  frame  of 
mind  that  is  begotten  of  a  good  meal  and  subsequent 
good  tobacco — over  there  in  Morelia  we  smoked  the 
Tepic  cigars,  which  are  excellent — that  I  opened  to 
them  the  great  project  that  I  had  in  hand.  I  told  them 
frankly  the  whole  story  :  of  my  strange  adventure  in 
the  Indian  village,  of  the  paper  and  the  gold  token 
which  the  Cacique  unwittingly  had  given  me,  of  the 
letter  that  Fray  Antonio  had  found,  and  of  how  our 
joint  discoveries  set  us  clearly  in  the  way  of  finding 
an  Aztec  community  that  certainly  had  existed  un 
changed,  save  for  such  changes  as  had  been  developed 


THE    ENGINEER    AND   THE    LOST-FREIGHT   MAN.        75 

within  itself,  since  a  time  long  anterior  to  the  Spanish 
conquest  of  Mexico.  I  dwelt  with  enthusiasm,  and  I 
think  forcibly,  upon  the  inestimable  gain  to  the  science 
of  archseology  that  would  result  from  the  investiga 
tions  that  we  intended  to  make  ;  and  I  touched  also 
upon  the  scientific  value  that  would  attach  to  a  care 
ful  and  accurate  description  of  the  effect  produced 
upon  this  primitive  community  by  Fray  Antonio's 
preaching  ;  for  this  would  be,  as  I  pointed  out,  the 
first  occasion  in  the  history  of  the  world  when  a  rec 
ord  would  be  made,  from  the  stand-point  of  the  un 
prejudiced  ethnologist,  of  the  reception  accorded  by  a 
heathen  people  to  the  doctrine  of  Christianity.  In  a 
word,  I  presented  the  case  most  glowingly — so  glow 
ingly,  in  fact,  that  my  own  heart  was  quite  fired  by 
it — and  ended  by  urging  them  earnestly  to  join  us  in 
a  work  that  promised  so  greatly  to  increase  the  sum  of 
human  knowledge  touching  the  most  interesting  sub 
jects  that  can  be  presented  to  the  consideration  of  the 
human  mind.  And  I  am  pained  to  state  that  I  dis 
covered,  when  I  finished  my  appeal,  that  Young  was 
sound  asleep  ! 

Rayburn  did  not  go  to  sleep,  and  he  did  take  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  interest  in  what  I  said,  but  I  was  dis 
couraged  by  his  very  obvious  failure  to  respond  to  my 
enthusiasm. 

"  You  see,  Professor,"  he  said,  "  the  fact  of  the  mat 
ter  is  that  I  can't  spare  the  time.  I  might  take  a  month 
or  two,  but  you  seem  to  think  that  a  year  is  the  least 
time  in  which  any  substantial  results  can  be  accom 
plished.  I  can't  give  a  year,  or  anything  like  a  year, 


76  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

to  what,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  will  be  sheer  idle 
ness.  I've  got  a  mother  and  sister  at  home  on  Cape 
Cod  who  depend  on  me  for  a  living,  and  I  must  get  to 
work  again.  YOU  see,  there  is  glory  enough  in  all  this, 
and  glory  that  I  should  like  to  have  a  share  in ;  but 
glory  is  a  luxury  that  I  can't  afford.  I've  got  to  go  to 
vrork  at  something  that  has  money  in  it." 

The  sound  of  Rayburn's  voice  had  the  effect  on 
Young  of  waking  him  up.  He  listened,  in  a  sleepily 
approving  way,  to  Rayburn's  practical  comment,  and 
then,  giving  a  prodigious  yawn,  added,  on  his  own  ac 
count:  "Yes,  that's  about  the  size  of  it.  We're  neither 
of  us  here  for  our  health,  Professor  ;  what  we're  after 
is  spot  cash.  If  there  was  any  money  in  your  scheme 
I'd  take  a  hand  in  it  quick  enough ;  but  as  there  isn't — • 
Well,  not  this  evening,  Professor;  some  other  evening." 

"No  money  in  it!"  I  answered.  "Why,  haven't  I 
told  you  that  there  is  stored  in  this  hidden  city  the 
greatest  treasure  that  ever  was  brought  into  one  place 
since  the  world  began  ?" 

"  No,  I'll  be  d d  if  you  have  !"  Young  replied, 

with  great  energy  and  promptness.  "  Not  a  word,  un 
less  it  was  while  I  was  asleep.  What's  he  said  about 
a  treasure,  Rayburn?  I'm  awake  now,  an'  I'll  keep 
awake  if  there's  anything  like  that  to  be  talked  about." 

"  You  certainly  haven't  said  anything  about  a  treas 
ure  so  far,  Professor,"  Rayburn  said.  "I'd  like  to 
hear  about  it  myself.  If  there  is  a  treasure-hunting 
expedition  mixed  up  with  this  scientific  expedition  of 
yours,  that  puts  a  new  face  on  the  whole  matter.  I 
can't  afford  the  luxury  of  scientific  investigation  pure 


THE    ENGINEER   AND   THE    LOST-FKEIGHT   MAN.        77 

and  simple,  but  if  there  is  money  in  it  too,  that  is 
quite  another  thing.  So  tell  us  about  your  prospect, 
Professor,  and  if  the  surface  indications  are  good  you 
can  count  on  me  to  go  in." 

I  confess  that  I  was  a  trifle  disappointed  upon  find 
ing  how  eagerly  these  young  men  sought  information 
in  regard  to  a  matter  that  I  considered  so  unimportant 
that  I  had  forgotten  even  to  mention  it.  But  I  reflect 
ed  that,  after  all,  the  motive  by  which  they  were  in 
duced  to  join  in  our  adventure  was  immaterial,  while 
our  need  for  the  strength  that  their  joining  hi  it  would 
give  us  was  so  pressing  that  upon  gaining  them  for 
allies  very  likely  depended  our  eventual  success.  Be 
ing  moved  by  which  considerations,  I  dilated  upon  the 
magnitude  of  the  hidden  treasure  with  such  vehemence 
that  presently  their  eyes  were  flashing,  and  the  blood 
had  so  mounted  into  their  brains  that  their  very  fore 
heads  were  ruddy  and  their  breath  came  short.  And  I 
must  confess  that  my  own  pulses  beat  quicker  and 
harder  as  I  talked  on.  Of  this  treasure  I  had  not  be 
fore  thought  at  all,  being  so  thoroughly  taken  up  with 
the  scientific  side  of  the  discovery  that  I  hoped  to  ac 
complish;  but  now  I  was  moved  profoundly  by  thoughts 
of  what  I  could  do  for  the  advancement  of  science  had 
I  practically  limitless  wealth  at  my  command.  And 
especially  was  I  thrilled  by  the  thought  of  the  mag 
nificent  form  in  which  my  own  magnificent  discover 
ies  could  be  given  to  the  world.  Compared  with  my 
Pre-Columbian  Conditions  on  the  Continent  of  North 
America,  Lord  Kingsborough's  great  work,  both  in 
form  and  in  substance,  would  sink  into  hopeless  insig- 


78  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

nificance.  And  in  all  that  I  said  of  the  vastness  of  the 
hidden  treasure  I  felt  certain  that  I  was  keeping  well 
within  the  bounds  of  truth,  for  I  had  the  positive  as 
surance  that  in  the  Aztec  treasure-house  in  that  hid 
den  valley  the  ransom  of  a  nation  was  stored. 

"  Will  you  go  with  us  ?"  I  asked,  when  I  had  brought 
my  glowing  description  to  an  end. 

"Well,  I  should  smile,  Professor,"  was  Young's  char 
acteristic  answer. 

"  You  can  count  me  in  now,  and  no  mistake !"  said 
Rayburn,  and  added,  "By  Jove,  Palgrave,  I  mean  to 
take  a  part  of  my  share  and  buy  the  whole  of  Cape 
Cod  !" 

And  so  the  make-up  of  our  party  was  decided  upon. 
Fray  Antonio  joined  it  for  the  love  of  God;  I  joined  it 
for  the  love  of  science;  and  Young  and  Rayburn  joined 
it  for  the  love  of  gold.  In  regard  to  the  boy  Pablo,  he 
could  not  strictly  be  said  to  have  joined  it  at  all.  He 
simply  went  along. 


VI. 


FRAY  ANTONIO  was  well  pleased  when  I  told  him  of 
the  stout  contingent  that  I  had  secured ;  and  when  he 
had  seen  Rayburn  and  Young,  and  had  talked  with 
them — though  his  talk  with  Young  did  not  amount  to 
much,  for  Young's  Spanish  was  abominable — he  was  as 
thoroughly  satisfied  as  I  was  that  for  our  purposes  we 
could  not  possibly  have  found  two  better  men, 


THE  KING'S  SYMBOL.  79 

In  the  course  of  this  conference  we  made  short  work 
of  our  preparations  for  departure.  Rayburn's  experi 
ence  in  fitting  out  engineering  parties  had  given  him 
precisely  the  knowledge  required  for  putting  our  own 
little  party  promptly  and  effectively  in  the  field ;  and 
in  this  matter,  and  in  all  practical  matters  connected 
with  the  expedition,  he  took  the  lead.  He  and  Young 
already  possessed  the  regulation  frontier  outfit  of  arms 
— a  "Winchester  rifle  and  a  big  revolver — which  they 
increased  by  another  big  revolver  apiece;  and  I  armed 
myself  similarly  with  a  pair  of  revolvers  and  a  Win 
chester:  concerning  the  use  that  I  should  make  of 
which,  in  case  need  for  using  them  arose,  I  had  very 
grave  doubts  indeed.  Fray  Antonio  declined  to  carry 
any  arms  at  all ;  and  after  he  had  accidentally  dis 
charged  one  of  my  pistols,  which  he  had  picked  up  to 
examine,  so  that  the  ball  went  singing  by  my  ear  and 
actually  cut  through  the  brim  of  Young's  hat,  there 
was  a  general  disposition  to  admit  that  the  less  this 
godly  man  had  to  do  with  carnal  weapons  the  safer 
would  it  be  for  all  the  rest  of  us.  Young's  hat  was  a 
battered  Derby,  and  about  as  unsuitable  a  hat  for  wear 
in  Mexico  as  possibly  could  be  found  ;  but  for  some 
unknown  reason  he  was  very  much  attached  to  that 
hat,  and  he  was  so  wroth  over  having  a  hole  shot 
through  it  in  that  unprovoked  sort  of  way  that  he 
manifested  a  decided  coolness  towards  Fray  Antonio 
for  several  days. 

In  the  matter  of  armament,  the  happiest  member  of 
our  party  was  Pablo.  He  was  a  handy  boy,  and  when 
he  had  demonstrated  his  ability  to  manage  a  revolver 


80  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

by  doing  some  very  creditable  shooting  with  mine  (at 
a  mark  that  I  had  stuck  up  in  the  corral,  in  order  that 
I  might  gain  ease  in  the  use  of  this  unknown  weapon), 
I  delighted  him  inexpressibly  by  buying  him  a  pistol 
for  his  very  own.  I  think  that  Pablo,  upon  becoming 
the  possessor  of  that  revolver,  at  once  grew  two  inches 
taller.  The  way  that  he  strutted  as  he  wore  it,  and  his 
eager  thrusting  forward  of  his  left  hip,  so  that  this 
gallant  piece  of  warlike  furniture  might  be  the  most 
conspicuous  part  of  him,  were  a  joy  to  witness.  For 
a  time  his  mouth-organ  was  entirely  neglected;  and 
coming  quietly  into  the  corral  one  day,  I  found  him 
engaged  in  exhibiting  the  revolver  to  El  Sabio ;  who 
regarded  it  with  a  slightly  bored  expression  that  I  do 
not  think  Pablo  took  in  good  part. 

Rayburn  decided  that  our  expedition  could  be  made 
more  effectively  with  a  small  force  than  with  a  large 
one.  He  argued  that  unless  we  took  into  the  Indian 
country  a  really  powerful  body  of  men,  we  would  be 
safer  with  a  very  few :  for  a  few  of  us  would  feel 
keenly  the  necessity  of  keeping  constantly  on  guard ; 
could  be  more  easily  managed  and  held  together  in 
running  away ;  and  in  case  a  fight  was  forced  upon  us 
we  would  fight  more  steadily  because  each  of  us  would 
know  surely  that  he  could  rely  upon  the  support  of  all 
the  rest.  Which  reasoning  we  perceived  to  be  so  sound 
that  we  promptly  accepted  it. 

Rayburn  added  to  our  company,  therefore,  only  three 
men  :  two  Otomi  Indians  of  whom  Fray  Antonio  gave 
a  good  account,  and  Dennis  Kearney,  who  had  served 
as  axeman  on  the  recently  disbanded  engineering  corps. 


81 

He  was  a  merry  soul,  this  Dennis,  with  a  stock  of  Irish 
melodies  in  his  head  that  would  have  made  the  fortune 
of  an  old-time  minstrel.  He  and  Pablo  took  to  each 
other  at  once — though,  since  neither  of  them  spoke  a 
word  of  the  other's  language,  music  was  their  only 
channel  of  communication — and  Pablo  presently  pre 
sented  us  with  a  rendering  on  his  mouth-organ,  from  a 
strictly  Mexican  stand -point,  of  "Rory  O'More"  that 
quite  took  our  breaths  away.  While  Pablo  played, 
Dennis  would  stand  by  with  his  head  cocked  on  one 
side,  and  with  an  air  of  attention  as  closely  critical  as 
that  which  El  Sabio  himself  exhibited  ;  and  when  Pab 
lo  went  wrong,  as  he  invariably  did  in  his  attempted 
bravura  passages,  Dennis  would  stop  him  with  a  wave 
of  his  hand,  and  an  "  Aisy  now,  me  darlint !  That's 
good  enough  Mexican,  but  it  ain't  good  Irish  at  all, 
at  all,"  and  then  would  show  him  what  good  Irish  was 
by  singing  "  Rory  O'More  "  in  a  fashion  which  made 
the  old  stone  arches  ring  with  a  volume  of  music  that 
could  have  given  odds  to  an  entire  brass  band.  Poor 
Dennis  !  Only  the  other  day  I  heard  an  organ-grinder 
grinding  forth  "  Rory  O'More,"  and  the  memory  of  the 
last  time  I  heard  Dennis  sing  that  song,  and  of  what 
heroic  stuff  that  merry  -  hearted  rough  fellow  then 
showed  himself  to  be  made,  came  suddenly  over  me, 
and  there  was  a  choking  in  my  throat,  and  my  eyes 
were  full  of  tears. 

Well,  it  was  a  good  thing — or  a  bad  thing,  as  you 

please  to  put  it — that  we  could  not  see  far  into  the 

future  that  morning  when  we  packed  our  mules  in  the 

corral  of  the  hotel,  and  set  out  upon  the  march  that 

6 


82  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

was  to  lead  us  through  such  perilous  passages  before 
we  reached  its  end. 

That  I  might  fill  to  the  brim  the  cup  of  Pablo's  hap 
piness — for  my  conscience  pricked  me  a  little  that  I 
suffered  him  to  go  with  us — I  had  bought  him  the  rain 
coat  of  palm  leaves  for  which  his  heart  so  long  had 
pined.  What  with  this  and  his  revolver,  and  the  de 
light  of  going  upon  a  journey  (for  he  had  very  fully 
developed  that  love  of  travel  which  is  so  strong  in  his 
race),  his  wits  seemed  to  be  completely  addled  with  joy. 
He  insisted  upon  putting  on  his  absurd  rain-coat  at 
once ;  and  he  did  so  many  foolish  things  that  even  El 
Sabio  looked  at  him  reproachfully — this  was  when  he 
tried  to  place  on  that  small  donkey's  back  some  of  the 
heavy  pack-stuff  destined  for  the  back  of  one  of  the 
big  mules  —  and  we  got  along  much  better  with  his 
room,  as  he  presently  enabled  us  to  do,  than  we  did 
with  his  company.  When  the  time  for  starting  came, 
we  had  quite  a  hunt  for  him ;  and  we  might  not  have 
found  him  at  all  had  we  not  been  guided  by  the  sound 
of  music  to  the  sequestered  spot  to  which  he  had  re 
tired  in  order  to  give  vent  to  his  pent-up  feelings  by 
playing  on  his  mouth-organ  "  Pop  goes  the  weasel " — 
an  air  that  Young  had  been  whistling  that  morning 
and  that  had  mightily  taken  Pablo's  fancy. 

We  made  rather  an  imposing  cavalcade  as  we  filed 
forth  from  the  great  gate  of  the  hotel,  and  took  our 
way  along  the  Calle  Nacional,  the  principal  street  of 
the  city,  towards  the  Garita  del  Poniente.  Fray  An 
tonio  and  I  rode  first ;  then  came  Rayburn  and  Young, 
followed  by  Dennis  Kearney;  then  the  two  pack-mules, 


THE   KING'S   SYMBOL.  83 

beside  which  walked  the  two  Otomi  Indians ;  and 
closing  the  procession  came  Pablo,  wearing  his  rain 
coat,  with  his  revolver  strapped  outside  of  it,  and  rid 
ing  El  Sabio  with  a  dignity  that  would  have  done  hon 
or  to  the  Viceroy  himself.  Pablo  certainly  was  in  the 
nature  of  an  anti-climax;  but  I  would  not  have  told  him 
so  for  the  world.  Fray  Antonio  wore  the  habit  of  his 
Order,  this  privilege  having  been  specially  granted  to 
him  by  the  Governor  of  the  State  as  a  safeguard  for  all 
his  expeditions  among  the  Indians.  It  was  understood, 
indeed,  that  he  now  was  going  forth  on  one  of  his  mis 
sionary  visits  among  the  mountain  tribes,  and  simply 
rode  with  us,  so  far  as  our  ways  should  lie  together, 
for  greater  security.  I  had  announced  that  I  was  go 
ing  among  the  Indians  again  in  order  to  increase  my 
knowledge  of  their  manners  and  customs;  and  Ray- 
burn — to  whom  the  rest  of  the  party  was  supposed  to 
belong — had  stated  that  he  was  taking  the  field  in  or 
der  to  make  a  new  reconnoissance  along  the  line  of  the 
projected  railway.  It  was  in  order  to  maintain  these 
several  fictions  that  we  went  out  by  the  western  gate, 
and  that  we  continued  for  two  days  our  march  west 
ward  before  turning  to  our  true  course. 

Of  our  progress  during  the  ensuing  fortnight  it  is 
not  necessary  that  I  should  speak,  for  beyond  the  ordi 
nary  incidents  of  travel  no  adventures  befell  us.  Dur 
ing  this  period  we  went  forward  steadily  and  rapidly ; 
and  at  the  end  of  it  we  had  covered  more  than  three 
hundred  miles,  and  had  come  close  to  where — suppos 
ing  our  rendering  of  the  Aztec  map  to  be  correct,  and 
that  we  had  rightly  collated  it  with  the  dead  monk's 


84  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

letter — the  mission  of  Santa  Marta  had  stood  three  cen 
turies  and  a  half  before.  There  was  no  possibility  that 
any  trace  of  this  mission  would  be  found ;  but  every 
rock  that  we  came  to  was  most  eagerly  scrutinized,  for 
on  any  one  of  them  might  we  find  the  King's  symbol 
engraved. 

For  two  or  three  days  we  had  been  travelling 
through  a  region  very  wild  and  desolate.  Far  away 
along  the  western  horizon  rose  a  range  of  mountains 
whose  bare  peaks  cut  a  jagged  line  along  the  sky. 
The  country  between  us  and  these  far-away  mount 
ains  was  made  up  of  many  parallel  ranges  of  rocky 
hills ;  which  ranges  were  separated  by  broad,  shallow 
valleys,  where  cactus  and  sage-brush  covered  the  dry 
ground  thickly ;  and  the  only  trees  that  broke  this 
dreary  monotony  were  pita  -  palms,  the  most  dismal 
thing  in  all  created  nature  to  which  the  name  of  a 
tree  ever  has  been  given  by  man.  There  was  no 
trail,  and  travelling  through  this  tangle  of  briers  was 
very  difficult.  All  of  Rayburn's  skill,  which  long 
practice  had  developed  to  a  high  degree,  was  required 
to  enable  us  to  pick  a  way  through  so  thorny  a  wil 
derness.  At  times  the  Indians  with  their  machetes, 
and  Dennis  with  his  axe,  had  to  cut  a  path  for  us  ; 
and  despite  all  our  care,  our  own  hands  were  cut  and 
torn,  and  the  legs  of  our  poor  beasts  were  red  with 
blood. 

The  deadly  dryness  of  this  arid  waste  added  to  our 
discomfort.  A  strong  dry  wind  blew  steadily  from 
the  north,  building  up  out  of  the  fine  dust  which  was 
over  all  the  surface  of  the  baked  ground  little  whirl- 


85 

winds — remolinos,  as  the  Mexicans  call  them — which 
went  dancing  down  the  valleys  as  though  they  were 
ghostly  things ;  and  occasionally,  when  one  of  these 
struck  us,  we  were  covered  with  a  prickly  dust  that 
fairly  burned  our  skins.  What  water  we  got  was  to 
be  had  only  by  digging  in  the  arroyos  which  traversed 
the  centre  of  each  valley  longitudinally;  and  although 
this  water  always  was  muddy,  and  had  a  strongly  al 
kaline  taste,  it  is  the  only  thing  that  I  remember  with 
pleasure  in  all  that  weary  land.  Of  animal  life  there 
was  nothing  to  be  seen,  save  a-plenty  of  rattlesnakes ; 
and  a  few  great  buzzards  which  wheeled  above  us 
from  time  to  time  as  though  with  the  intention  of 
keeping  track  of  us  until  we  should  fall  down  and  die 
of  thirst  and  weariness,  and  they  should  be  able  to 
feast  upon  us  at  their  ease. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  day  of  this  dreary  travel 
ling  we  had  come  close  to  the  great  western  range  of 
mountains,  and  our  camp  that  night  was  made  in  the 
mouth  of  a  little  valley  that  opened  from  among  the 
foot  -  hills.  The  night  before  we  had  made  a  dry 
camp,  and  for  the  whole  of  the  twenty-four  hours  we 
had  had  but  a  pint  of  water  apiece.  Pablo,  I  am  sure, 
had  given  half  of  his  own  scant  allowance  to  El  Sabio. 
The  other  animals — it  was  all  that  we  could  do  for 
them — had  only  their  dusty  mouths  and  nostrils  wiped 
out  with  a  wet  sponge.  They  were  pitiable  objects, 
with  their  bleeding  legs,  their  haggard  eyes,  their  out- 
hanging  tongues,  and  their  quivering  flanks.  As  Fray 
Antonio  unsaddled  his  horse  I  saw  that  there  were 
tears  in  his  eyes;  but  the  rest  of  us,  I  fear,  were  too 


86  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

thoughtful  of  our  own  misery  to  feel  much  sorrow  for 
the  misery  of  our  beasts. 

I  suppose  that  a  man  must  suffer  the  lack  of  it,  as 
we  then  did,  in  order  to  know  how  precious  a  thing 
water  is.  And  to  give  some  notion  of  its  preciousness 
to  those  who  not  only  are  free  at  any  time  to  drink 
their  fill  of  it,  but  even  can  fill  bath-tubs  with  it,  and 
feel  the  joy  of  it  on  their  bare  bodies  whenever  they 
are  so  minded,  I  will  say  that  when  a  little  digging 
gave  us  that  night  as  much  water  as  we  wanted,  our 
joy  was  far  greater  than  it  would  have  been  had  we 
there  found  the  hidden  city  of  which  we  were  in  search. 

Our  well  was  sunk  in  the  broad  sandy  bottom  of  the 
arroyo,  in  the  midst  of  a  narrow  and  delectably  grassy 
valley  between  two  foot-hills.  And  the  abundance  and 
the  sweetness  of  the  water,  as  well  as  the  presence  of 
grass,  showed  us  that  but  a  little  way  up  this  valley 
there  must  be  an  open  stream.  We  drank,  and  our 
beasts  drank,  until  all  of  our  skins  were  nigh  to  burst 
ing  ;  and  the  abundance  of  water  was  so  great  that  we 
even  could  wash  the  dust  at  last  from  our  parched 
faces  and  necks  and  arms ;  and  much  like  raw  beef  our 
skins  looked  when  our  washing  was  ended,  and  the 
stinging  of  them  was  as  though  we  had  been  whipped 
with  nettles.  It  was  our  intention  now  to  leave  the 
plains  and  to  march  along  the  edge  of  the  foot-hills 
parallel  with  the  main  range,  otherwise  we  should  not 
have  ventured  thus  to  wash  ourselves.  In  a  region 
where  alkali  dust  is  in  the  air,  washing  is  to  be  shunned; 
for  each  time  that  the  skin  is  cleaned  the  new  deposit 
of  dust  takes  a  deeper  biting  hold. 


THE  KING'S  SYMBOL.  87 

It  was  rather  that  we  might  escape  the  misery  of 
further  travel  on  the  arid  plains  than  because  we  had 
any  strong  hopes  of  thus  finding  the  way  of  which  we 
were  in  search  that  we  had  decided  to  change  our  line 
of  march.  Young  had  begun  openly  to  express  his 
contempt  for  the  Aztec  map,  and  in  the  hearts  of  all 
of  us  had  sprung  up  some  doubts  as  to  its  trustworthi 
ness  as  a  guide.  After  all,  it  was  not  in  the  least  a 
map  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  ;  and  that  it 
should  show  us  rightly  our  way  depended  not  only 
upon  our  having  interpreted  correctly  its  curious  sym 
bolism,  but  also  upon  the  correctness  of  the  interpre 
tation  that  Mexican  archaeologists  had  given  to  the 
map  of  the  first  Aztec  migration — of  which  map,  as 
we  believed,  our  map  was  a  reserved  and  secret  part. 
If  either  interpretation  were  wrong,  then  we  might  be 
hundreds  of  miles  distant  from  the  region  in  which  the 
way  marked  by  gravings  of  the  King's  symbol  should 
be  sought. 

Four  or  five  hours  of  daylight  still  remained  to  us 
after  we  had  dug  our  well,  and  with  the  delicious  wa 
ter  flowing  into  it  had  satisfied  our  thirst ;  but  we  had 
no  intention  of  going  farther  that  day.  We  had  no 
need  to  hobble  the  animals,  for  they  could  be  trusted 
to  stay  near  the  water-hole  while  they  feasted  on  the 
grass,  and  we  needed  food  and  rest  quite  as  much  as 
they  did.  Young  and  Dennis  together  got  us  up  a 
famous  meal,  and  when  it  was  ended  we  lighted  our 
pipes  and  held  a  sort  of  council  of  war.  That  we 
might  talk  the  more  freely,  in  both  English  and  Span 
ish,  we  drew  away  a  little  from  where  the  two  Otomi 


88  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Indians  and  Pablo  were  stretched  out  upon  the  grass 
together;  and  we  bade  Dennis  take  a  look  around  the 
shoulder  of  the  first  hill,  so  that  we  might  know  some 
thing  of  what  our  way  would  be  like  when  we  start 
ed  in  the  morning ;  for  we  were  not  as  yet  ready  that 
the  minor  members  of  the  expedition  should  know  the 
purpose  that  we  had  in  mind.  We  had  decided  that 
when,  by  the  finding  of  the  course  indicated  by  the 
gravings  of  the  King's  symbol,  our  quest  fairly  had 
a  beginning,  being  no  longer  a  matter  of  mere  hope 
and  conjecture,  we  then  would  give  Dennis  and  Pablo 
and  the  two  Indians  some  notion  of  what  we  intend 
ed  doing ;  with  the  option  of  deciding  for  themselves 
whether  or  not  they  would  have  a  part  in  it.  And 
the  thought  never  once  occurred  to  our  minds  that 
circumstances  might  arise  of  such  a  nature  that  nei 
ther  they  nor  we  would  have  any  choice  in  the  matter 
at  all. 

As  we  consulted  together  we  had  spread  out  before 
us  a  map  of  Mexico,  and  with  this  the  map  that  the 
Cacique  had  given  me,  and  a  copy  of  the  map  showing 
the  great  Aztec  march.  Yet  the  more  that  we  coun- 
cilled  the  less  could  we  come  to  any  reasonable  conclu 
sion  as  to  what  was  best  for  us  to  do.  As  nearly  as 
we  could  tell  from  the  strange  guides  that  we  needs 
must  be  led  by,  we  had  beaten  thoroughly  the  region 
where  once  the  mission  of  Santa  Marta  was;  and  not  a 
trace  of  the  gravings  on  the  rocks  had  we  found.  To 
go  over  this  region  again,  searching  still  more  minute 
ly,  was  too  great  an  undertaking  even  to  be  thought 
of ;  and  yet  the  only  alternative  to  this  painful  course 


89 

seemed  to  be  that  we  should  abandon  our  search  alto 
gether  ;  in  short,  we  were  completely  at  sea. 

"  What  I  think,"  said  Young,  "  is  that  that  old  dead 
monk,  an'  that  old  dead  Cacique,  have  set  up  a  job  on 
us.  They're  both  of  'em  lyin'  like  fiddlers  ;  that's 
what's  th'  matter  with  them.  There  ain't  any  hidden 

city,  or  hidden  treasure,  or  hidden  d n  anything ; 

it's  all  a  fraud  from  beginnin'  t'  end.  I  vote  t'  pull 
up  stakes  an'  go  home." 

A  cool  refreshing  wind  was  beginning  to  sweep 
down  to  us  from  the  mountains;  but  it  was  blowing 
only  in  puffs  as  yet,  for  the  night  would  not  be  upon 
us  for  several  hours.  Borne  faintly  and  fitfully  upon 
this  uncertain  wind  came  to  us  the  strains  of  "  Rory 
O'More";  with  which  melody,  as  we  inferred,  Dennis 
was  beguiling  his  solitude  while  he  explored  the  route 
that  we  were  to  take  the  next  day.  Pablo,  sitting 
comfortably  on  the  grass,  his  back  propped  against 
the  back  of  El  Sabio,  also  caught  the  sound;  and 
straightway  began  to  play  an  accompaniment  on  his 
mouth-organ  to  Dennis's  distant  singing.  The  strains 
gradually  grew  louder,  showing  that  Dennis  was  re 
turning  ;  but  when  they  stopped  suddenly  we  thought 
that  he  had  only  tired  of  the  sound  of  his  own  voice,  or, 
perhaps,  did  not  think  anything  about  the  matter  at  all. 

But  when  a  sound  of  hurried,  irregular  steps  came 
down  the  wind  to  us,  we  all  were  on  our  feet  in  a  mo 
ment  and  had  our  arms  ready,  for  it  was  evident  that 
Dennis  was  running  from  something;  and  the  danger 
was  likely  to  be  a  serious  one,  for  running  was  not  at 
all  in  Dennis's  line.  We  wondered  why  lie  did  not 


90  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

call  out ;  but  the  explanation  of  his  silence  was  plain 
enough,  ten  seconds  later,  as  he  came  around  the  shoul 
der  of  the  hill,  staggered  in  among  us,  and  fell  on  the 
grass  at  our  feet — with  the  blood  streaming  from  his 
mouth  and  nostrils,  and  with  an  arrow  clear  through 
his  breast. 

"  Indians !"  he  gasped,  with  an  effort  that  brought 
a  torrent  of  blood  spurting  from  his  mouth ;  and  he 
added,  faintly,  "  But  I've  bate  'em,  th'  divvils,  in  their 
hopes  of  a  soorprise  !" 

These  triumphant  words  were  the  last  that  Dennis 
Kearney  uttered  on  earth.  As  he  spoke,  a  fresh  out 
burst  of  blood  came  from  his  nostrils  and  mouth,  a 
quiver  went  over  him — and  then  he  was  dead.  I 
do  not  believe  that  many  men  would  have  done  what 
Dennis  did :  run  a  good  quarter  of  a  mile  with  an 
arrow  through  his  lungs,  and  then  die  exulting  be 
cause  he  had  succeeded  in  warning  the  camp. 

Rayburn  had  the  situation  instantly  in  hand.  "  Get 
the  packs  and  saddles  on  quick  !"  he  cried.  "  The 
Indians  '11  come  around  that  hill  and  try  to  scoop  us 
here  in  the  open.  They  won't  close  in ;  they'll  keep 
off,  and  just  lie  around  for  a  week  till  we're  played  out, 
and  then  they'll  step  in  and  finish  us ;  they'll  do  that, 
likely  enough,  anyway.  But  our  one  chance  is  to  get 
to  a  place  up  the  valley  here,  where  they  can  tackle  us 
only  from  in  front.  There's  water  up  there,  so  we'll 
be  all  right,  and  we  may  be  able  to  shoot  enough  of 
them  to  make  the  rest  give  it  up,  or  they'll  close  in, 
and  we'll  have  the  comfort  of  getting  the  whole  thing 
ended  without  any  useless  fooling  over  it." 


91 

All  the  while  that  he  spoke  he  was  working  away, 
and  so  were  we  all,  at  saddling  and  packing ;  and, 
luckily,  the  animals,  although  the  water  and  the  food 
and  the  rest  had  put  new  strength  into  them,  still  were 
too  tired  to  give  us  the  trouble  that  animals  give  at 
such  times  when  they  are  fresh.  In  a  surprisingly 
short  time  we  were  ready  to  start ;  and  yet  not  a  sign 
had  we  had,  save  the  warning  that  Dennis  had  brought 
us,  that  there  was  an  Indian  within  a  hundred  miles 
of  us.  Indeed,  but  for  his  dead  body  on  the  ground 
beside  our  camp-fire,  we  might  have  imagined  that  our 
scare  was  only  a  bad  dream.  That  it  was  a  very  bad 
reality  was  shown  just  as  the  last  pack  went  on,  when 
one  of  our  Otomi  Indians  gave  a  howl  as  an  arrow 
went  through  his  leg,  and  I  felt  a  sharp  little  nip  on 
my  forehead  where  an  arrow  just  grazed  it,  and  there 
was  that  queer,  faint  whirring  sound  in  the  air  that 
only  a  flight  of  a  good  many  arrows  together  will 
produce. 

Rayburn  took  the  body  of  poor  Dennis  before  him 

on  his  own  horse ;  he'd  be  d d  if  the  Indians  should 

get  Dennis  yet,  he  said ;  and  away  we  went  up  the 
sandy  bed  of  the  arroyo,  driving  the  mules  before  us, 
and  the  Otomi  Indians  pelting  along  on  a  dead-run. 
The  Indian  who  had  been  hit  coolly  broke  the  ar 
row  off  short,  and  then  pulled  it  out  through  the 
wound. 

Suddenly  we  saw  Young,  who  was  riding  a  little 
ahead  of  the  rest  of  us,  half  pull  up  his  horse  and 
look  earnestly  at  a  great  shoulder  of  rock  that  jutted 
out  from  the  mountain  -  side.  "There's  your  King's 


92  THE    AZTEC  TREAStfKE-HOtJSE. 

symbol,  and  be  d d  to  it !"  he  shouted ;  and  added, 

"  What's  the  good  of  a  King's  symbol  when  we're  all 
goin'  to  lose  our  hair  ?" 

He  was  under  full  headway  again  in  a  moment.  As 
we  shot  past  the  rock  we  all  turned  to  look ;  and  there, 
sure  enough,  was  the  long-sought-for  sign. 


VII. 

THE    FIGHT   IN    THE    CANON. 

As  we  fled  along  the  valley,  and  in  a  few  moments 
heard  the  sound  of  the  Indians  pursuing  us,  my  mind 
was  chiefly  occupied  with  considerations  of  the  quali 
ty  which  we  denominate  fear.  I  perceived  that  this 
purely  occasional  passion  had  a  very  direct  bearing 
upon  my  own  especial  science  of  archaeology.  I  re 
flected  that  had  I  been  engaged  in  building  a  city  at 
the  moment  when  that  irritating  flight  of  arrows  fell 
among  us — the  sting  of  one  of  which  I  still  felt  smart 
ing  upon  my  forehead — I  should  assuredly  have  ceased 
at  once  the  building  of  that  city,  and  should  have 
moved  rapidly  away.  And  thus  an  excellently  well- 
built  city,  that  would  have  delighted  archaeologists  of 
the  future,  would  have  been  lost  to  the  world.  Put 
ting  the  matter  yet  more  closely  :  here  I  had  just 
found  the  sign  for  which  I  and  my  companions  had 
been  toilsomely  searching  for  a  considerable  time;  the 
sign  which  unquestionably  would  lead  us  to  the  most 
interesting  archaeological  discovery  that  ever  had  been 


THE    FIGHT   IN   THE    CANON.  93 

made.  And  yet,  instead  of  stopping  to  study  this 
sign  earnestly,  that  I  might  understand  all  the  mean 
ing  of  it,  I  was  hastening  away  from  it  with  all  possi 
ble  speed;  and  for  no  better  reason  than  that  certain 
barbarians,  whose  knowledge  of  archeology  was  not 
even  rudimentary,  were  pursuing  me  that  they  might 
take  my  life — an  imperfectly  expressed  concept,  by- 
the-way;  for  life  can  be  taken  only  in  the  limited  sense 
of  depriving  another  of  it;  it  cannot  be  taken  in  the 
full  sense  of  deprivation  and  acquisition  combined. 
These  several  reflections  so  stirred  my  bile  against  the 
Indians  in  pursuit  of  us  that  I  began  to  have  a  curi 
ously  blood  -  thirsty  longing  for  our  actual  battling 
with  them  to  begin ;  for  I  was  possessed  by  a  most 
unscientific  desire  to  balance  our  account  by  killing 
several  of  them.  And  I  confess  that  this  desire  was 
increased  as  I  looked  at  the  dead  body  of  poor  Dennis, 
lying  limply  across  the  fore  -  shoulders  of  Rayburn's 
horse. 

It  was  with  real  satisfaction,  therefore,  that  I  obeyed 
Rayburn's  order  to  halt,  that  we  might  make  ready  for 
the  fight  to  begin.  The  valley  up  which  we  had  been 
riding  had  narrowed  by  this  time  into  a  strait  way 
shut  in  between  high  and  nearly  perpendicular  walls; 
and  the  place  that  Rayburn  had  chosen  for  us  to  make 
our  stand  in  was  the  mouth  of  a  canon  setting  off  from 
the  valley  nearly  at  right  angles.  The  walls  of  this 
canon  came  almost  together  above,  far  overhanging 
their  bases,  so  that  assault  from  overhead  was  impossi 
ble;  some  fragments  of  fallen  rock  made  a  natural 
breastwork  for  us  to  fight  behind ;  and  a  little  stream 


94  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

of  pure,  sweet  water  flowed  at  our  feet.  Had  this 
place  been  made  for  us  expressly  it  could  not  better 
have  suited  our  purposes;  and  finding  it  so  opportunely 
put  fresh  heart  into  us.  There  was  not,  of  course,  a 
shadow  of  resemblance  between  the  two,  but,  some 
how,  I  fancied  that  the  place  where  we  stood  resem 
bled  my  old  class-room  at  Ann  Arbor;  and  I  actually 
found  myself  repeating  the  opening  sentence  of  the 
address  that  I  delivered  when  I  was  formally  inducted 
into  the  Chair  of  Topical  Linguistics.  I  mention  this 
fact  not  because  it  is  of  the  slightest  importance  in 
this  present  narrative,  but  because  I  think  that  it  well 
illustrates  the  tendency  towards  illogical  association 
that  is  so  curious  a  characteristic  of  the  human  mind. 

I  was  not  able  to  observe  this  phenomenon  attentive 
ly,  for  Rayburn  hustled  us  all  about  so  sharply  that  I 
had  no  available  time  just  then  for  abstract  thought. 
The  mules  and  the  horses  and  El  Sabio  were  driven 
into  the  canon,  and  we  were  ranged  behind  the  frag 
ments  of  rock  almost  in  a  moment.  Each  man  had  his 
Winchester  and  revolvers  in  readiness,  and  a  couple 
of  cases  of  cartridges  had  been  broken  out  from  the 
packs  and  put  where  we  all  had  easy  access  to  them. 
While  this  work  was  going  forward  we  could  hear  the 
Indians  coming  hotly  up  the  valley,  and  we  were  bare 
ly  ready  for  them  when  the  foremost  of  their  party 
came  in  sight. 

"Wait  a  little,"  said  Rayburn,  quietly.  "They 
don't  know  which  turn  we've  taken,  and  they'll  proba 
bly  get  into  a  bunch  to  do  some  talking,  and  then 
we  can  whack  away  right  into  the  flock," 


THE    FIGHT   IN   THE    CANON.  05 

While  we  were  thus  making  ready  I  could  see  tnat 
Fray  Antonio  was  in  great  distress  of  mind.  He  was 
a  very  brave  man,  and  I  know  that  his  strong  desire 
was  to  fight  with  the  rest  of  us.  And  yet,  just  as  the 
Indians  showed  themselves,  he  deliberately  turned  his 
back  upon  them  and  walked  away  into  the  canon's 
depths.  His  very  lips  were  white,  and  there  were 
beads  of  sweat  upon  his  brow,  and  I  saw  that  his  fin 
gers  twitched  convulsively.  I  know  what  he  wanted 
to  do,  and  I  saw  what  he  did.  If  ever  a  man  showed 
the  high  bravery  of  moral  courage,  Fray  Antonio 
showed  it  then.  Even  Young,  in  whom  I  did  not  look 
for  appreciation  of  bravery  of  that  sort,  said  after 
wards  that  it  was  the  pluckiest  thing  he  ever  saw. 

As  Rayburn  had  expected,  the  Indians  halted — but 
keeping  more  under  cover  than  he  had  counted  upon — 
and  held  some  sort  of  a  council.  But  it  did  not  seem, 
from  what  we  could  see  of  their  gestures,  to  relate  to 
the  way  that  we  might  have  taken  so  much  as  to  the 
canon  in  which  we  actually  were  concealed.  They 
pointed  towards  the  mouth  of  the  canon  repeatedly, 
and  it  struck  me  that  in  their  motions  there  was  a  cu 
rious  indication  of  dread  or  awe.  One  old  man  was 
especially  vehement  in  gestures  of  this  unaccountable 
nature ;  and  when  at  last  the  younger  men  in  the  coun 
cil  seemed  to  revolt  against  his  orders,  this  man,  and 
all  the  older  men  with  him,  retired  down  the  valley 
whence  they  had  come. 

The  young  men,  left  to  themselves,  hesitated  for  a 
moment,  and  then  with  a  cry — as  though  for  their  own 
encouragement — came  charging  towards  us  in  a  body. 


6  THE    A2TEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

As  we  got  a  full  view  of  them  we  perceived  with  much 
satisfaction  that  their  only  arms  were  bows  and  arrows 
and  long  spears,  and  that  there  were  not  more  than 
twenty  men  in  the  lot.  And  then  Ray  burn  gave  the 
order  to  fire.  I  confess  that  my  hand  so  trembled  as  I 
pulled  the  trigger  of  my  rifle  that  I  was  not  at  all  sur 
prised  to  find  that  the  man  whom  I  had  fired  at — a 
very  tall,  powerful  young  fellow,  who  seemed  to  be  in 
command — was  not  hit ;  but  a  man  just  behind  him 
dropped,  and  I  had  a  queer  feeling  in  my  throat,  and 
certain  odd  sensations  in  my  stomach,  as  I  realized  that 
I  had  shot  him.  Indeed,  I  was  so  engrossed  with  med 
itations  upon  the  curious  ease  with  which  a  man's  life 
is  let  out  of  him,  that  I  quite  forgot  for  some  sec 
onds  to  continue  firing.  The  others,  luckily,  conduct 
ed  themselves  in  a  more  practical  manner  ;  and  the 
little  whirlwind  of  balls  which  sped  from  the  Win 
chesters  made  it  wonderful,  not  that  so  many  of  the 
Indians  fell  dead  or  wounded,  as  that  any  of  them  re 
mained  alive  and  unhurt.  But  eight  of  them  did  sur 
vive  their  charge  in  the  face  of  the  storm  of  bullets 
that  we  pelted  at  them;  and  these — headed  by  the  tall 
fellow,  who  seemed  bullet-proof — came  rushing  at  us 
over  our  breastwork  of  rocks,  shouting  and  flourishing 
their  long  spears. 

I  cannot  say  very  accurately  what  happened  during 
the  next  five  minutes  or  so,  for  one  of  the  Indians 
came  directly  at  me,  and  before  I  could  at  all  stop  him 
— for  I  found  that  shooting  at  him  with  my  revolver 
did  him  no  harm  at  all ;  and  this  struck  me  as  odd, 
for  I  had  repeatedly  hit  the  mark  while  practising  in 


THE    FIGHT   IN   THE    CANON.  97 

the  corral  —  he  had  prodded  his  spear  through  the 
fleshy  part  of  my  left  arm.  It  hurt  severely.  He  had 
aimed  his  thrust,  doubtless,  at  my  heart,  and  he  cer 
tainly  would  have  penetrated  that  vital  organ  had  I 
not  at  that  moment  slipped,  and  so  disarranged  his 
aim.  He  pulled  the  spear  out  of  my  arm,  which  ac 
tion  also  gave  me  great  pain,  and  his  manner  indicated 
that  he  was  about  to  thrust  it  into  some  other  part  of 
me  ;  which  he  surely  could  have  done,  for  I  was  whol 
ly  at  a  loss  as  to  what  measures  should  be  taken  to 
assure  my  own  safety.  Indeed,  I  was  very  well  con 
vinced  that  my  life  was  as  good  as  ended,  and  a  cu 
rious  flash  of  thought  went  through  me  that  I  cannot 
coherently  remember,  but  that  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
query  as  to  whether  or  not  in  a  future  state  the  many 
scientific  truths  which  as  yet  are  but  imperfectly  un 
derstood  will  be  wholly  revealed  to  us, 

However,  the  opportunity  that  I  confidently  expect 
ed  would  be  given  to  me  in  a  moment  to  obtain  an  an 
swer  to  this  interesting  question  did  not  then  occur. 
Just  as  the  Indian  was  lunging  at  me — I  can  see  his 
ugly  face  now,  as  I  close  my  eyes  and  let  my  thoughts 
turn  backward  to  that  critical  moment — there  was  a 
flash  of  some  bright  object  before  me,  and  then  the 
Indian's  entire  head  seemed  to  shut  up  suddenly,  some 
thing  like  an  opera-glass,  and  he  went  down  to  the 
ground  like  a  stone.  As  I  turned,  I  saw  that  my  de 
liverance  had  come  from  Pablo,  and  even  in  that  very 
exciting  moment  I  observed  with  astonishment  that 
the  weapon  with  which  he  had  slain  the  Indian  was  a 
great  jagged  sword — if  the  maccuahuitl  can  be  called 
7 


98  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

a  sword — such  as  the  Aztecs  used  in  ancient  times. 
I  could  not  then  conveniently  stop  to  question  hini 
whence  he  had  obtained  that  very  interesting  weapon, 
for  there  was  another  Indian  already  close  upon  me ; 
and  I  am  pleased  to  say — for  I  do  not  wish  the  belief 
to  go  abroad  that  scientific  men  are  worse  than  useless 
in  practical  emergencies — that,  without  assistance  from 
Pablo  or  from  anybody  else,  I  managed  to  pick  up  my 
rifle,  and  with  the  heavy  iron  barrel  of  that  weapon, 
used  club  wise,  I  mashed  the  head  of  that  Indian  into 
a  perfect  pulp.  I  know  positively  that  I  mashed  it 
into  a  pulp,  for  I  tried  afterwards  to  measure  it,  and 
found  that  for  craniological  purposes  it  was  utterly 
valueless. 

Even  had  I  required  Pablo's  aid  in  this  encounter 
he  could  not  possibly  have  given  it  to  me,  for  he  was 
himself  just  then  very  hotly  engaged.  Indeed,  but  for 
assistance  that  came  to  him  from  an  unexpected  quar 
ter  his  life  assuredly  would  have  been  lost.  He  was  in 
the  act  of  hauling  back  to  strike  at  the  fellow  facing 
him,  and  he  did  not  at  all  know  that  he  was  in  immi 
nent  danger  of  a  thrust  in  the  back  from  a  wounded 
wretch  who,  having  struggled  upon  his  knees,  was 
using  what  little  life  was  left  in  him  to  deliver  yet 
another  blow.  Just  at  this  critical  instant  it  was  that 
Fray  Antonio  dashed  into  the  thick  of  the  fighting, 
and  covered  Pablo's  body  with  his  own  against  this 
assault  in  the  rear ;  so  that,  as  the  Indian  struck,  the 
knife  only  cut  through  the  monk's  habit  and  slightly 
scratched  his  arm,  instead  of  making  a  hole  between 
Pablo's  shoulder-blades  that  would  have  let  the  life 


THE   FIGHT   IN   THE    CANON.  99 

out  of  him.  Young,  who  was  close  beside  Pablo,  saw 
what  was  going  on,  and  checked  it  before  further  harm 
was  done  by  turning  quickly  and  shooting  off  the  top 
of  the  wounded  Indian's  head  ;  and  then  Fray  Antonio 
retired  out  of  the  fighting  in  which,  without  himself 
striking  a  blow,  he  had  taken  so  gallant  a  part. 

So  far  as  I  was  concerned,  the  fight  was  at  an  end 
when  I  had  so  cleverly  mashed  the  head  of  my  second 
assailant.  No  more  Indians  came  at  me,  and  as  I  looked 
around  I  perceived  that  this  was  for  the  excellent  rea 
son  that  there  were  no  more  to  come.  Two  were  just 
advancing  on  Young ;  who  had  them  covered  with  his 
revolver,  and  dropped  them,  one  after  the  other,  in  less 
time  than  is  required  to  tell  about  it.  The  only  other 
survivor  among  the  enemy — at  least  the  only  one  able 
to  keep  his  feet — was  the  tall  young  chief,  and  he  and 
Rayburn  were  just  finishing  the  last  round  of  what 
probably  was  as  fine  a  fight  as  ever  was  fought.  They 
were  well  matched  in  size  and  in  weight;  and  if  the 
Indian  was  any  stronger  than  Rayburn,  I  can  only  say 
that  he  must  have  been  a  most  wonderfully  strong 
man.  They  were  fighting  on  even  terms  ;  for  the  Ind 
ian  was  armed  only  with  a  short  club,  that  he  held  in 
his  left  hand — and  this  left-handed  method  made  him 
all  the  more  awkward  to  deal  with — while  Rayburn, 
having  emptied  his  revolver,  was  using  as  a  club  its 
heavy  barrel. 

As  I  caught  sight  of  them,  the  Indian  was  in  the 
act  of  springing  forward  and  delivering  a  tremendous 
blow;  but  Rayburn  most  skilfully  parried  this  blow  by 
throwing  out  his  rifle,  still  retained  in  his  left  hand,  iu 


100  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

such  a  manner  and  with  such  force  that  the  Indian's 
arm — at  the  same  time  striking  and  being  struck  with 
the  iron  barrel — was  broken  just  above  the  wrist.  He 
gave  a  yell  of  pain,  as  he  well  might;  but  he  was  a 
plucky  fellow,  and  instead  of  dropping  his  club  he  only 
shifted  it  to  his  right  hand.  He  never  had  a  chance  to 
strike  again  with  it ;  for  in  that  same  instant  Rayburn 
swung  his  revolver  at  arm's-length  through  the  air  and 
brought  it  down  on  his  head  with  a  sound  so  muffled 
and  so  hollow  that  I  can  liken  it  only  to  the  staving- 
in  of  the  head  of  a  full  cask.  For  a  moment,  while 
Rayburn  drew  back  to  strike  again,  the  Indian's  body 
swayed  heavily;  and  then  all  his  muscles  relaxed,  and 
he  fell  heavily  and  limply  to  the  ground — while  his 
brains  spurted  out  from  the  ghastly  trench  made  by 
that  mighty  blow  from  back  to  front  across  the  entire 
top  of  his  skull. 


VIII. 

AFTER   THE    FIGHT. 

RAYBURN  stood  panting  for  a  moment  over  the  Ind 
ian's  body ;  and  then,  having  satisfied  himself  by  a  look 
around  among  our  fallen  enemies  that  every  one  of 
them  was  either  dead  or  dying,  he  stooped  down  beside 
the  stream  to  drink  from  it,  and  then  to  bathe  an  ugly 
gash  in  his  forehead  made  by  a  spear  thrust  that  luck 
ily  had  glanced  aside. 

Indeed,  we  all  had  wounds  or  bruises  by  which  we 


AFTER   THE    FIGHT.  101 

were  likely  to  remember  our  fight  for  a  good  many 
days  to  come.  In  addition  to  the  cut  on  his  forehead, 
Ray  burn  had  an  arm  badly  bruised  by  a  crack  from 
a  club;  Young  had  a  cut  in  the  calf  of  his  leg  that 
must  have  been  made  by  one  of  the  Indians  after  he 
had  fallen  wounded;  Fray  Antonio  had  the  slight  cut 
in  his  arm  that  he  received  in  rescuing  Pablo  ;  a  blow 
from  a  club  on  my  shoulder  had  completely  disabled 
my  left  arm,  and  my  head  was  beginning  to  ache  from 
the  wound  in  my  forehead  where  the  arrow  had  nipped 
me;  and  Pablo,  by  a  square  knock-down  blow  on  the 
head  that  tumbled  him  among  the  rocks,  had  a  bad 
gash  in  his  cheek  and  was  bruised  all  over.  And  yet  the 
very  first  thing  that  boy  did  when  the  fight  was  ended 
— being  still  dazed,  no  doubt,  by  the  blow  on  his  head 
— was  to  play  a  bit  of  "  Rory  O'More  "  on  his  mouth- 
organ  in  order  to  make  sure  that  his  beloved  "  instru- 
mentito  "  had  not  been  injured  by  his  fall.  The  sound 
of  this  air  gave  my  heart  a  wrench,  as  I  thought  of 
poor  Dennis;  whose  gallant  race  with  death  assuredly 
had  saved  all  of  us  from  dying  without  a  chance  to 
strike  a  blow.  And  both  of  our  Otomi  Indians  were 
dead  too. 

But  while  we  had  suffered  thus  severely  we  had  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  that  we  had  inflicted  a  most 
signal  punishment  upon  our  enemies.  Of  the  whole 
company  that  had  attacked  us — eighteen  in  number, 
as  we  found  by  counting  their  bodies — only  two  remain 
ed  alive  when  the  fight  ended;  and  these  two  speed 
ily  relieved  us  of  all  responsibility  concerning  them 
by  dying  of  their  wounds.  As  Young  tersely  expressed 


102  THE    AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

it,  we  had  "given  the  whole  outfit  a  through  bill  of 
lading  to  Kingdom  Come !" 

Notwithstanding  the  pain  that  I  was  in,  the  first 
thought  that  came  to  me  after  we  had  achieved  peace  (by 
the  effective  yet  somewhat  radical  process  of  killing  all 
of  our  enemies)  was  concerning  the  strange  weapon  with 
which  Pablo  had  been  fighting;  and  by  his  prompt  use 
of  which  in  my  defence  my  life  had  been  saved.  He 
had  laid  it  upon  a  rock — while  testing  the  integrity  of 
his  mouth-organ — and  as  I  now  carefully  examined  it 
I  found  that  my  glimpse  of  it  as  Pablo  had  mashed  the 
Indian's  head  had  not  deceived  me.  It  truly  was  a 
maccuahuitl,  the  primitive  Aztec  sword,  but  very  un 
like  any  description  of  that  weapon  that  I  had  ever 
seen.  The  maccuahuitl,  as  described  by  the  Span 
iards  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  and  as  shown  by 
the  Aztec  pictures  of  it  preserved  in  various  museums, 
was  a  wooden  blade  from  three  and  a  half  to  four  feet 
long  and  from  four  to  five  inches  wide.  Along  its  two 
edges,  like  great  saw  teeth,  fragments  of  obsidian, 
about  three  inches  long  and  two  inches  wide,  were 
inserted;  and  as  these  were  keenly  sharp  the  weapon 
was  a  most  ferocious  one.  The  sword  that  I  held  in 
my  hand  was  identical  in  its  essential  features  with  this 
primitive  design;  but  it  was  shorter,  narrower,  and 
thinner.  What  was  still  more  extraordinary  about 
it  was  that,  while  it  seemed  to  be  made  of  brass,  it  had 
the  bright  glitter  of  gold  and  the  temper  and  the  elas 
ticity  of  steel.  Being  tested  by  bending,  it  instantly 
sprung  straight  again;  and  notwithstanding  the  vigor 
ous  use  that  Pablo  had  been  making  of  it  on  the  bones 


AFTER   THE    FIGHT.  103 

of  several  Indians,  the  thin  edges  of  the  projecting 
teeth  were  only  nicked  a  little — as  the  edge  of  a  steel 
sword  would  have  been  nicked  under  like  circumstances 
— and  not  one  of  these  teeth  was  bent  out  of  place,  as 
assuredly  would  have  been  the  case  had  the  metal  been 
ordinary  brass. 

Fray  Antonio,  by  this  time,  had  returned  to  us  again 
— looking  rather  shamefaced  because  of  the  part  that 
he  had  taken  in  the  fight — and  I  eagerly  showed  him 
this  strange  weapon  that  had  been  so  strangely  found; 
for  Pablo's  account  of  it  was  simply  that,  just  as  his 
revolver  was  emptied  upon  the  Indians  charging  tow 
ards  us,  when  there  was  no  time  to  reload,  his  eyes 
were  caught  by  the  glitter  of  the  sword  as  it  stuck  in 
a  cleft  in  a  rock;  whereupon  he  most  gladly  seized  it — 
and  instantly  used  it  to  good  purpose  upon  the  Indian 
who  was  so  close  to  ending  me  with  his  spear,  and  sub 
sequently  contrived  with  it  to  send  two  more  Indians 
to  their  account. 

Fray  Antonio's  knowledge  of  the  matter  having  a 
wider  practical  range  than  mine,  for  he  knew  well  the 
contents  of  the  several  Mexican  museums  in  which 
specimens  of  the  primitive  weapons  are  preserved,  I 
thought  it  possible  that  he  might  be  able  to  match 
this  curious  maccuahuitl  with  an  account  of  another 
like  it  which  he  somewhere  had  seen.  That  there  was 
no  record  in  the  books  of  this  weapon  made  of  met 
al  I  knew  very  well.  But  Fray  Antonio's  surprise 
over  it  was  greater  than  my  own;  and  he  certainly 
found  more  in  it  to  please  him  than  I  did ;  for  this 
metal  maccuahuitl,  supposing  it  to  belong  to  ancient 


104  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

times,  settled  in  his  favor  a  controversy  that  for  some 
time  past  we  had  been  amicably  but  earnestly  carrying 
on.  I  had  adopted  the  ingenious  theory  of  my  friend 
Bandelier  that  the  serrated  edge  of  the  Aztec  sword 
was  accidental ;  resulting  from  the  breaking  away  in 
use  of  portions  of  what  at  first  was  a  continuous  edge 
of  obsidian.  Fray  Antonio,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
held  firmly  to  the  ordinarily  accepted  opinion  that  the 
sword  was  such  as  I  have  described  above  (I  must  con 
fess  regretfully)  the  primitive  weapon  to  have  been. 

My  contention  therefore  was  that  the  sword  that 
Pablo  had  found  was  not  an  antique ;  and  I  fortified 
my  position,  as  I  considered  impregnably,  by  the  fact 
that  while  the  Aztecs,  before  the  Spanish  conquest,  did 
make  some  slight  use  of  copper  and  gold,  they  assured 
ly  had  no  knowledge  whatever  of  either  brass  or  steel. 
And  my  natural  irritation  very  well  may  be  imagined, 
by  any  one  familiar  with  controversies  of  this  nature, 
when  I  add  that  Fray  Antonio  endeavored  to  cut  the 
ground  from  under  me  by  asserting  that,  inasmuch  as 
the  weapon  obviously  was  not  made  of  brass  or  steel, 
my  argument  was  based  upon  false  premises  and  con 
sequently  led  to  illogical  conclusions.  I  am  afraid 
that  I  showed  a  little  temper  on  this  occasion ;  for 
Fray  Antonio  manifested  a  persistence  in  his  defence 
of  what  I  regarded  as  his  wholly  untenable  position 
that  amounted  to  what  I  held  to  be  downright  pig- 
headedness.  And  so,  for  a  considerable  length  of  time, 
we  stood  there,  among  the  bodies  of  the  dead  Indians, 
and  first  one  of  us  and  then  the  other  handled  the 
sword,  and  expressed  with  increasing  warmth  our  views 


AFTER  THE    FIGHT.  105 

respecting  it  and  each  other;  and  we  might  have  stood 
there  much  longer  had  not  Young — with  the  best  of 
intentions,  no  doubt,  but  in  a  way  that  certainly  was 
not  agreeable — taken  upon  himself  to  bring  our  con 
troversy  for  the  time  being  to  an  end. 

"  I  don't  exactly  know  what  you  and  the  Padre  are 
jawing  about  at  such  a  rate,  Professor,"  he  struck  in  ; 
"  but  as  well  as  I  can  catch  on,  it's  about  things  which 
happened  three  or  four  hundred  years  ago.  I  don't 
want  to  interrupt  you,  of  course ;  but  I  do  want  the 
Padre — he  knows  something  about  surgery,  as  I  saw 
the  other  day  when  he  took  that  cactus  thorn  out  of 
Pablo — to  do  something  to  plug  up  this  hole  in  my 
leg.  It's  bleeding  a  good  deal,  and  it  hurts  like  the 
very  devil.  And  I  guess  Rayburn  'd  be  glad  to  have 
that  slit  in  his  forehead  tied  up  too." 

To  do  Fray  Antonio  justice,  he  took  this  interrup 
tion  in  better  part  than  I  did  ;  for  I  was  deeply  inter 
ested  in  the  argument  in  which  we  were  engaged,  and 
wished  to  continue  it.  But  when  I  explained  what 
Young  wanted,  he  turned  to  him  at  once,  and  very  ten 
derly  as  well  as  very  skilfully  dressed  his  wound  ;  and 
then  bandaged  the  gash  in  Rayburn's  forehead,  and 
the  cut  in  Pablo's  cheek.  Pablo  decidedly  objected 
to  this  bandaging,  for  it  put  a  peremptory  stop  for  a 
while  to  his  playing  on  his  mouth-organ.  For  me  no 
surgery  was  required.  Fray  Antonio  carefully  felt 
my  shoulder  while  he  moved  my  arm — thereby  hurt 
ing  me  most  horribly — and  as  the  result  of  his  investi 
gations  he  assured  me  that  the  bones  were  neither 
broken  nor  out  of  place. 


106  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Rayburn  also  examined  the  maccuahuitl  with  much 
interest.  "  Of  course  it  is  not  brass,"  he  said,  "  and  of 
course  it  cannot  possibly  be  phosphor-bronze.  But,  if 
such  a  thing  were  a  metallurgical  possibility,  I  should 
say  that  it  was  gold — treated  in  some  manner  that 
gives  it  as  great  a  hardness  as  bronze  receives  when 
treated  with  phosphorus,  but  with  some  chemical 
change  wrought  in  its  constitution  that  gives  it  also 
the  tempered  quality  of  steel.  Nothing  but  gold, 
you  see,"  he  added,  "  could  lie  around  out  -  of  -  doors 
this  way  and  not  get  tarnished  by  oxidization." 

"  What's  the  reason  that  it's  not  some  queer  thing 
belonging  to  the  folks  we're  looking  for?"  Young 
asked  ;  and  his  question  expressed  a  thought  that  ^al- 
ready  had  found  a  lodging  in  my  own  mind.  For  such 
good-luck  as  this  would  be  I  was  quite  willing  to  con 
cede  that  Fray  Antonio  was  right  in  his  unpleasantly 
positive  views  in  regard  to  the  shape  of  the  Aztec 
swords.  And  what  Young  said  also  put  me  sharply 
in  mind  of  the  graving  on  the  rock  of  the  King's  sym 
bol,  that  we  had  found  only  in  the  same  moment  to 
lose  it  again.  To  this  matter  I  now  adverted  ;  and  I 
said  some  very  unpleasant  things  about  the  Indians 
who  had  prevented  us  from  following  the  trail,  that 
we  had  sought  for  so  laboriously,  when  we  did  find  it 
at  last — and  who  still,  for  we  doubted  not  that  the 
main  body  was  in  wait  for  us  lower  down  the  valley, 
prevented  us  from  returning  to  the  spot  where  we  had 
seen  the  sign  and  thence  systematically  continuing  our 
search. 

"If  I  was  you,  Professor,"  said  Young  as  I  ceased 


AFTER    THE    FIGHT.  107 

speaking,  "I  wouldn't  be  so  everlastingly  down  on 
these  poor  devils  of  Indians  for  what  they've  done. 
They  killed  Dennis,  an'  that's  a  pretty  bad  business  ; 
an'  they  got  away  with  our  two  mozos,  too ;  an' 
they've  pretty  well  battered  th'  rest  of  us.  But  I 
take  it  that  we've  about  evened  things  up  by  killin' 
eighteen  of  'em — or  six  of  their  crowd  dead  for  each 
one  dead  in  ours.  I  guess  we  can  call  that  part  of  th' 
business  about  square.  But  what  I'm  gettin'  at  is,  if 
it  hadn't  been  for  the  Indians  we'd  never  have  come 
up  this  valley  ;  an'  so  we'd  never  have  struck  th' 
King's  symbol  trail  at  all." 

"  But  what  good  did  it  do  us  to  find  it,  when  we 
could  not  follow  it  ?"  I  asked.  "  We  cannot  go  back 
to  examine  the  sign  without  risking  our  lives  ;  and  un 
less  we  do  examine  it  we  cannot  know  where  the  next 
one  is,  and  so  the  trail  is  lost." 

"I've  just  been  waitin',"  said  Young,  "t'  see  if  I 
was  th'  only  man  in  this  party  that  God-a-mighty'd 
given  a  pair  of  eyes  to.  I  guess  I  am.  Suppose  you 
just  get  up,  Professor,  an'  turn  around,  an'  take  a  look 
at  that  place  where  there's  a  brown  mark  on  th'  side 
of  th'  rock  ;  an'  suppose  th'  rest  of  you  look  there 
too.  If  that  isn't  th'  King's  symbol,  just  as  plain  as 
th'  noses  in  all  your  faces,  I'll  eat  every  dead  Indian 
in  this  canon." 

And  Young  spoke  the  truth.  Just  above  the  cleft 
whence  Pablo  had  taken  the  sword,  graven  so  deeply 
in  the  rock  that  after  all  the  weathering  of  centuries  it 
still  remained  distinct  and  clear,  was  identically  the 
same  figure  that  Fray  Francisco  in  the  far  past  time 


108  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

had  represented  in  his  letter,  and  that  was  repeated 
also  on  the  far  more  ancient  piece  of  gold.  Above  it 
was  cut  an  arrow  that  pointed  directly  up  the  canon. 

It  was  a  good  thing  that  something  came  to  cheer 
us  just  then;  for  what  with  the  death  of  Dennis  and 
of  our  two  poor  Indians,  and  our  own  hurts,  and  the 
melancholy  feeling  that  must  oppress  men  always — 
save  those  of  cruel  and  hardened  natures  —  when  a 
fight  is  ended  in  which  they  have  spilled  freely  human 
blood,  we  all  were  oppressed  sensibly  by  a  consuming 
sadness. 

But  here  was  cheer  indeed.  Not  only  had  we  surely 
found  the  trail  at  last,  but  we  found  it  leading  in  pre 
cisely  the  direction  that  at  that  moment  we  desired  to 
go.  For  us  to  return  down  the  valley  to  the  open 
country,  we  knew  was  full  of  most  signal  danger ;  for 
the  Indians  who  so  unaccountably  had  declined  to  take 
part  in  attacking  us  assuredly  were  lying  in  wait  for 
us  by  the  way.  Our  only  chance  to  escape  them  was 
to  strike  into  the  mountains  ;  and  the  sign  that  we 
now  had  gave  promise  that  we  should  find  some  sort 
of  a  path  along  which  we  might  go.  Therefore  it  was 
with  good  heart  that  we  set  about  getting  as  far  into 
the  depths  of  the  canon  as  possible  before  night  should 
be  wholly  upon  us;  trusting,  in  regard  to  possible  pur 
suit,  somewhat  to  the  superstition  of  the  Indians  which 
so  unaccountably  yet  so  obviously  had  been  aroused, 
and  also  to  the  wholesome  dread  that  they  must  have 
of  us  upon  finding  that  every  one  of  their  companions 
had  been  slain.  The  bodies  of  our  poor  Otomis  we 
placed  in  a  deep  fissure  in  the  rock,  and  there  heaped 


THE  CAVE  OP  THE  DEAD.  109 

stones  upon  them,  while  Fray  Antonio  said  over  them 
the  briefer  office  ;  but  the  body  of  Dennis  we  carried 
with  us,  that  we  might  give  him  a  more  tender  and 
reverent  burial  in  gratitude  for  his  brave  struggle  to 
save  our  lives  when  he  knew  that  his  own  life  was 
lost.  As  for  the  eighteen  dead  Indians — who  had  in 
vited  the  death  that  so  promptly  had  come  to  them — 
we  did  not  bother  ourselves  about  them  at  alL  We 
left  them  to  the  coyotes. 


IX. 

THE    CAVE    OP   THE   DEAD. 

VERY  dismal  was  our  procession  of  faintly  seen  fig 
ures  moving  cautiously  through  that  wild  solitude.  At 
its  head  went  Rayburn,  leading  his  horse,  on  which  was 
Dennis's  dead  body ;  all  of  us,  being  bruised  and  cut 
and  bleeding,  walked  slowly  and  painfully;  and  behind 
us,  ghastly  forms  torn  by  bullets  and  crushed  by  blows, 
lay  the  slain  Indians  in  all  manner  of  unnatural  atti 
tudes,  made  yet  more  hideous  and  fantastical  by  the 
gathering  gloom  of  night.  Indeed,  night  now  was  so 
close  upon  us  that  had  not  the  canon  in  which  we  were 
run  east  and  west,  we  would  have  been  for  some  time 
past  in  darkness.  As  it  was,  though  shut  off  from  the 
west  by  the  great  range  of  mountains,  a  faint  light  came 
down  into  its  depths  from  the  still  bright  eastern  sky, 
where  lingered  ruddy  reflections  of  the  sunset:  and  so 
we  could  see  to  pick  our  way,  along  the  edge  of  the 


110  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

little  stream,  among  the  rough  masses  of  rock  and 
trunks  of  trees  which  had  fallen  from  above. 

Our  march  ended  sooner  than  we  had  counted  on. 
Before  we  had  accomplished  more  than  half  a  mile  of 
this  rough  travelling,  there  loomed  before  us  a  wall  of 
rock  which  shut  in  the  end  of  the  canon,  and  which 
rose  as  high  and  as  sheer  as  did  the  canon's  sides.  Our 
hearts  sank  within  us,  for  we  perceived  that  we  were  in 
a  cul-de-sac  ;  whence  escape  was  possible  only  along 
the  way  by  which  we  had  come — and  so  to  return,  with 
the  Indians  still  in  wait  for  us,  was  to  walk  straight  into 
the  jaws  of  death.  And,  further,  if  our  course  in  this 
direction  was  cut  off,  it  was  evident  that  the  King's 
symbol  graved  upon  the  rock  at  the  entrance  of  the 
canon  was  a  useless  and  misleading  sign. 

In  the  hope  that  we  might  find  a  sharp  turn,  not  to 
be  perceived  until  we  were  close  upon  it,  we  pressed 
on  through  the  dusk  until  we  came  to  the  very  end  of 
the  canon,  and  the  dark  wall  of  rock  that  barred  our 
way  rose  directly  above  our  heads.  And  then  we 
found,  not  a  turn  in  the  canon,  but  a  narrow  opening 
(through  which  came  forth  the  little  stream)  into  the 
body  of  the  mountain  itself.  Yet  we  hesitated  about 
entering  this  black  gap  —  for  who  could  tell  what 
depths,  unseen  in  that  dense  darkness,  we  might  not 
plunge  into  headlong  ? 

Much  dry  pine  wood,  branches  and  whole  trees,  lay 
about  us  in  the  canon  ;  and  of  this  apt  material  Ray- 
burn  presently  constructed  a  great  torch.  Lighting 
this  in  the  open  canon  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  for 
while  we  felt  tolerably  certain  that  the  main  body  of 


THE    CAVE    OF    THE    DEAD.  Ill 

our  enemies  had  not  followed  us,  we  could  not  be  whol 
ly  certain  that  they  were  not  close  upon  our  heels  and 
ready  to  open  upon  us  with  a  volley  of  arrows  and  spears, 
Rayburn  therefore  struck  a  wax-match — with  which 
excellent  article  of  Mexican  manufacture  we  were  sup 
plied  plentifully  —  and  with  this  to  light  his  way,  en 
tered  the  narrow  pass ;  and  in  his  wake  the  rest  of  us 
followed.  Almost  in  a  moment  the  walls  on  each  side 
of  us  spread  out  beyond  the  reach  of  the  narrow  circle 
of  light,  and  we  perceived  that  we  were  come  into  a 
cave.  But  before  we  could  at  all  discern  our  surround 
ings  the  match  was  blown  out  by  a  sudden  suck  of 
wind  setting  in  from  the  entrance,  and  we  were  in  thick 
darkness.  The  air  around  us  was  so  sweet  and  so  fresh 
that  we  knew  that  the  cave  must  be  large,  and  with 
more  than  one  opening — as,  indeed,  the  suck  of  wind 
inward  through  the  passage  by  which  we  entered  clear 
ly  showed.  While  Rayburn  struck  another  match, 
wherewith  to  light  the  torch,  we  all  stood  still  in  our 
places  ;  and  certain  tremors  went  through  our  breasts 
because  of  the  eeriness  of  our  surroundings. 

When  the  great  torch  blazed  up,  and  threw  every 
where  save  towards  the  high  roof  a  flood  of  light,  a 
real  and  rational  fear  took  possession  of  us.  The  cave 
was  nearly  circular,  and  at  its  back,  directly  facing  the 
entrance,  was  a  roughly  hewn  mass  of  stone  on  which 
rested  a  huge  stone  figure — identical  with  the  figures  in 
the  Mexican  Xational  Museum  to  which  Le  Plongeon, 
the  discoverer  of  one  of  them,  at  Chichen  -  Itza,  has 
given  the  name  of  Chac-Mool.  But  what  filled  us  with 
dread  was  not  this  impassive  stone  image.  Our  alarm 


112  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

came  from  a  much  more  natural  cause,  as  we  beheld, 
squatted  on  their  haunches  in  long  semicircular  rows, 
facing  the  great  stone  idol,  more  than  a  hundred  Ind 
ians.  Truly,  considering  that  our  rifles  were  outside 
the  cave  and  that  we  had  with  us  only  our  revolvers, 
our  momentary  thrill  of  terror  was  highly  natural. 

Yet  it  was  only  momentary.  The  Indians,  undis 
turbed  by  our  presence  and  by  the  sudden  blaze  of 
light,  remained  unmoved  in  silent  worship  of  their 
god ;  and  Rayburn,  the  first  of  us  to  recover  equanim 
ity,  set  all  our  fears  to  flight  as  he  exclaimed :  "  These 
are  not  the  fighting  kind.  Every  man  Jack  of  'em  is 
as  dead  as  Julius  Caesar.  We've  struck  an  Indian 
bone-yard." 

Here,  then,  was  the  reason  why  a  part  of  the  force 
that  had  attacked  us  had  drawn  off  when  we  made  our 
stand  at  the  mouth  of  the  canon  that  led  to  this  home 
of  the  dead.  Yet  when,  by  the  light  of  the  torch,  we 
examined  our  silent  fellow-tenants  of  the  cave,  it  did 
not  seem  that  they  had  been  placed  there  in  recent 
times.  Indeed,  the  more  that  Fray  Antonio  and  I 
looked  closely  at  their  wrappings  and  noted  the  way  in 
which  their  mummied  forms  had  been  ranged  before 
this  idol — that  certainly  belonged  to  a  primitive  time 
— the  more  were  we  inclined  to  believe  that  this  weird 
sepulchre  belonged  to  the  very  far  back  past.  But  for 
the  moment  it  mattered  not  to  us  whence  these  dead 
forms  came  :  the  essential  matter  was  that  while  we 
remained  in  the  cave  with  them  we  were  in  absolute 
safety. 

"  Well,"  said  Young,  when  we  had  reached  this  com- 


THE  CAVE  OF  THE  DEAD.  113 

forting  conclusion, "  since  it's  a  sure  thing  that  we're 
all  right  here,  I  move  that  we  make  ourselves  com 
fortable.  Let's  bring  in  th'  stock,  an'  get  th'  packs 
off  ;  an'  then  we'll  build  a  fire  an'  eat  another  supper. 
Fightin'  Indians  is  hungry  work,  an'  I  feel  as  if  I 
hadn't  had  anything  to  eat  for  a  week" — which  sug 
gestions  were  so  reasonable  that  we  at  once  proceeded 
to  act  upon  them. 

It  was  hard  work  for  us,  wounded  and  sore  and  tired 
as  we  were,  to  unfasten  the  pack-cords ;  and  still  harder 
work  to  collect  the  wood  for  our  fire.  But  we  man 
aged  to  accomplish  it  all  at  last ;  and  most  comfort 
ing  and  refreshing  was  our  supper  amid  those  extraor 
dinary  surroundings.  There  was  even  cheerfulness 
about  our  meal — and  yet  over  in  the  shadows  at  the 
back  of  the  cave,  touched  now  and  then  by  a  bright 
er  flash  of  firelight,  lay  before  the  heathen  altar  of  old 
the  body  of  our  poor  Dennis  ;  and  close  beside  us  were 
the  long  rows  of  dead  Indians.  I  sometimes  have 
thought  that  it  was  strange  that  we  then  had  any  heart 
to  eat  at  all,  surrounded  by  so  desolate  a  company. 
But  there  is  that  about  killing  one's  fellow-creatures, 
and  being  in  imminent  peril  of  being  killed  one's  self, 
I  have  found,  that  blunts  for  a  while  the  souls  of  those 
who  survive  and  makes  them  careless  of  death's  awful 
mystery.  As  the  fire  crackled  and  blazed,  giving  out 
a  plentiful  warmth  that  in  that  chill  place  was  most 
grateful  to  our  aching  bodies,  our  spirits  seemed  to 
brighten  with  its  brightness  ;  and  when  the  rich  smell 
of  strong  coffee  mingled  with  the  smell  of  stewing 
meats  told  that  Young's  cooking  was  nearly  ended, 
8 


114  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

we  sniffed  hungrily  and  eagerly ;  and  when  we  act 
ually  fell  to  upon  our  meal  I  remember  that  we  even 
laughed  over  it. 

Yet  it  is  but  just  to  Fray  Antonio  to  say  that  his 
fine  spirit  did  not  fall  to  the  level  of  grossness  that 
ours  were  brought  to  by  what,  as  it  seems  to  me,  was 
an  instinctive  gladness  on  the  part  of  our  fleshly 
bodies  that,  for  a  while  longer,  they  would  not  return 
to  the  dust  whereof  they  were  made.  Through  our 
meal  he  sat  gravely  silent,  yet  with  so  sweet  and  so 
tender  an  expression  upon  his  gentle  face  that  in  his 
silence  there  was  no  suggestion  of  reproof.  And  when 
our  meal  was  ended,  and  we  were  for  stretching  out 
upon  our  blankets  before  the  fire  and  smoking  our 
pipes  comfortably,  he  reminded  us,  with  no  touch  of 
harshness  in  his  voice,  that  a  last  duty  was  claimed  of 
us  by  our  dead  companion. 

And,  truly,  the  funeral  ceremonies  over  Dennis  in 
that  strange  place  of  burial  made  the  most  curious 
ending  of  a  man  that  ever  I  saw.  In  the  fine  dry  sand 
wherewith  the  cave  was  bedded,  directly  in  front  of 
the  altar  on  which  was  the  heathen  idol,  we  dug  his 
grave — toilsomely  and  with  pain,  for  all  of  our  bodies 
were  hurt  and  sore.  While  we  labored,  two  great 
torches  flared  upon  the  altar,  propped  against  the  idol ; 
and  long,  flickering  rays  of  light  shot  out  to  us  across 
the  mummied  bodies  of  the  dead  Indians — striking 
across  their  gleaming  teeth,  so  that  they  seemed  to 
smile  at  us — from  the  huge  blaze  of  the  fire. 

From  our  stores  Fray  Antonio  took  out  a  little  salt, 
and  from  the  clear  spring  that  bubbled  up  within  the 


THE    CAVE    OF   THE    DEAD.  115 

cave  a  cup  of  water,  which  elements  he  blessed  and 
mingled  as  the  rites  of  his  Church  prescribed;  and 
with  the  water  thus  consecrated  he  sprinkled  the  body 
lying  before  the  heathen  altar,  while  his  strong,  sweet 
voice  chanted  the  De  Profundis  so  that  all  the  cave 
rang  with  the  rich  melody  of  the  holy  strain,  and  our 
own  breasts  were  thrilled  by  it.  Gently  we  bore  the 
body  of  poor  Dennis  from  its  resting-place  before  the 
altar  to  its  last  resting-place  in  the  grave  that  we  had 
dug  there,  while  Fray  Antonio  said  the  Miserere;  and 
as  with  our  pack-ropes  we  lowered  the  body  into  the 
earth,  the  priest  sang  the  Benedictus,  with  its  promise 
of  a  better  life  to  come ;  and  then  a  prayer  ended  all, 
and  we  filled  in  the  grave. 

"  I'm  Congregational,  myself,"  Young  said,  when  our 
work  was  finished  ;  "  at  least  I  was  brought  up  that 
way  ;  an'  I'm  down  on  th'  Scarlet  Woman  from  first 
t'  last.  But  I  go  in  for  lettin'  folks  believe  what 
they've  got  a  mind  to  ;  an'  when  it  comes  t'  buryin' 
'em  it's  only  square  t'  give  'em  th'  sort  of  send-off 
that  they'd  really  like.  For  a  Catholic,  I  guess  Dennis 
was  a  pretty  good  one  ;  an'  I  must  say  I  think  it  would 
'a'  done  him  good  to  see  th'  way  we've  given  him  a 
first-class  funeral,  just  in  th'  shape  he'd  'a'  fixed  things 
up  for  himself.  But  I  guess  what  we've  been  at  would 
have  everlastin'ly  shook  up  these  dead  fellows  here,  if 
they  could  have  come  t'  life  for  about  five  minutes 
while  it  was  goin'  on !" 

There  was  an  element  of  grim  humor  in  this  suggest 
ion  of  Young's  that  tickled  my  fancy ;  and  it  was,  in 
deed,  allowing  for  the  quaintness  of  his  phrasing  of  it, 


116  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

but  an  expression  of  my  own  thoughts.  But  my  re 
flection  was  upon  the  curious  incongruity  of  it  all, 
and  upon  the  way  in  which  religious  faiths  supplant 
each  other ;  even  as  the  different  races  of  men  who  for 
mulate  them  and  believe  in  them  supplant  each  other 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Together  in  this  same 
cave  were  now  the  dead  of  two  faiths  and  two  races. 
Who  could  tell  what  dead  of  other  faiths  and  races 
yet  unborn  would  lie  here  also  before  the  end  of  time 
should  come  ? 

When  all  was  ended  we  were  glad  enough  to  lie 
down  to  give  our  battered  bodies  rest  in  sleep.  We 
felt  sure  that  no  attack  would  be  made  upon  us ;  yet 
we  rolled  some  fragments  of  rock  into  the  narrow  en 
trance  to  the  cave,  arranging  them  in  such  a  way  that 
they  would  fall  with  a  crash  should  any  attempt  be 
made  to  move  them  from  outside.  And,  this  precau 
tion  having  been  taken,  we  lay  down  upon  our  blank 
ets  thankfully,  and  never  troubled  ourselves  to  keep 
any  watch  at  all. 

It  was  brilliantly  light  when  we  awoke,  for  the  rays 
of  the  just-risen  sun  were  striking  strongly  into  the 
cave  through  its  entrance-way ;  and  much  light  came 
also  through  a  crevice  higher  up,  and  through  a  great 
hole  in  the  vastly  high  roof.  Viewed  in  this  clearer 
light,  there  was  a  horrible  ghastliness  about  the  mum 
mies  ranged  in  their  orderly  rows,  and  presided  over 
by  the  coarsely  carved,  coarsely  conceived  stone  figure 
that  in  life  they  had  worshipped  as  their  god.  On 
this  image  the  sunshine  fell  full,  and  we  perceived 
that  its  position  evidently  had  been  chosen  carefully, 


THE  CAVE  OP  THE  DEAD.  117 

so  that  the  very  first  ray  of  light  from  the  rising  sun 
would  strike  upon  it.  No  doubt,  in  ancient  times, 
this  cave  had  been  a  temple  as  well  as  a  place  of  sep 
ulchre. 

We  were  well  rested  by  our  long  and  sound  sleep ; 
but  the  pain  which  was  everywhere  in  our  bodies,  from 
our  many  bruises,  and  from  our  wounds,  and  from  the 
aching  stiffness  of  our  muscles,  made  life  for  a  time 
almost  intolerable.  Moreover,  the  languorous  reaction 
following  the  undue  exaltation  that  came  of  our  bat 
tling  and  escape  was  upon  us  ;  so  that  our  pain  of  body 
was  accompanied  by  a  most  sombre  and  melancholy 
cast  of  mind.  Yet,  again,  did  the  more  balanced  and 
delicate  temperament  of  Fray  Antonio  shine  out  by 
contrast  with  our  coarser  make  ;  for  while  he  also  suf 
fered  pains  of  the  body,  his  mind  was  filled  with  a 
serene  cheerfulness  that  found  expression  in  kindly, 
comforting  words,  by  which  our  flagging  spirits  were 
strengthened  and  upheld.  There  was  in  Fray  Anto 
nio's  nature,  surely,  a  fund  of  gentle  lovingness  the 
like  of  which  I  never  knew  in  any  other  man. 

And,  in  truth,  our  plight  was  such  that  we  stood  in 
much  need  of  comforting.  Not  only  were  we  sick 
with  our  many  hurts,  but  we  were  also  prisoners.  By 
the  full  light  of  day  we  examined  carefully  the  cave, 
and  found  no  outlet  to  it ;  and  we  examined  carefully, 
also,  the  walls  of  the  canon  throughout  its  full  length, 
and  made  sure  that  there  was  no  path  leading  upward 
whereby  a  man  could  go.  And  escape  down  the  val 
ley  was  cut  off,  for  the  Indians — who  knew,  no  doubt, 
the  manner  of  place  we  were  caught  in — were  on  guard 


118  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

and  watching  for  us ;  which  fact  came  sharply  to  our 
knowledge  with  a  half-dozen  arrows  that  dropped 
among  us  as  we  went  out  a  little  way  beyond  the 
mouth  of  the  canon  to  see  if  the  way  was  open  to  us. 
Had  we  been  whole,  we  might  have  made  a  dash  and 
fought  our  way  through  ;  but  even  this  poor  plan  was 
not  possible  when  our  bodies  were  stiff  and  sore.  Our 
one  comforting  thought  was  that,  as  we  had  an  abun 
dance  of  provisions  and  an  ample  supply  of  water,  we 
could  hold  out  for  so  long  a  time  that  the  Indians  at 
last  would  get  tired  of  waiting  for  us.  If  they  vent 
ured  to  attack  us  in  the  cave,  we  knew  that  we  could 
defend  ourselves  against  any  number  of  them  success 
fully.  If  they  simply  abandoned  the  siege,  then  we 
would  be  free  without  fighting  at  all.  But  it  was  dis 
mal  work  waiting  in  that  dismal  place  for  one  or  the 
other  of  these  two  ends  to  come. 

And  the  fact  that  the  King's  symbol  had  proved  a 
false  guide  also  was  a  source  of  deep  concern  to  us. 
By  the  full  strength  of  daylight  we  again  examined 
the  graving  at  the  entrance  to  the  canon,  and  there 
was  no  mistaking  the  way  in  which  the  arrow  pointed. 
And,  what  was  even  more  perplexing  and  disheart 
ening,  we  found  the  graving  repeated  at  the  entrance 
to  the  cave,  and  the  arrow  pointing  directly  towards 
the  statue  of  Chac-Mool.  It  was  impossible  that  this 
cave,  with  mummies  only  for  inhabitants,  could  be  the 
walled  city  wherein  the  reserve  force  of  men  and  treas 
ure  had  been  hid ;  and  yet  here,  obviously,  was  the 
end  of  the  trail.  Of  this  we  convinced  ourselves  by 
searching  the  cave  exhaustively  for  another  outlet — 


THE    SWINGING    STATUE.  119 

even  sounding  the  walls  in  the  hope  that  we  might 
find  a  passage  that  had  been  artificially  concealed.  As 
Rayburn  tersely  put  it,  we  were  no  better  than  so 
many  rats  in  a  trap  with  terriers  waiting  for  us  out 
side. 


THE    SWINGING    STATUE. 


FOUB  more  days  went  by  very  wearily.  Our  wounds 
were  healing — for  we  all  were  in  good  condition  as  the 
result  of  our  vigorous  life  in  the  open  air — but  they 
still  kept  us  in  constant  pain,  and  so  tended  to  increase 
our  melancholy.  Out  in  the  valley,  beyond  the  mouth 
of  the  canon,  the  Indians  maintained  their  watchful 
guard.  Rayburn  tried  the  experiment  of  holding  a 
hat  and  coat  out  on  a  pole,  standing  himself  under 
cover  of  the  rock,  and  in  an  instant  a  pair  of  arrows 
went  through  the  dummy ;  and  as  one  of  these  came 
from  the  right  and  the  other  from  the  left,  it  was  evi 
dent  that  in  both  directions  the  valley  was  picketed. 

We  were  safe  enough  for  the  time  being,  of  course. 
Even  should  the  Indians  overcome  their  superstitious 
dread  and  enter  the  canon — which  was  not  probable, 
for  they  had  not  even  ventured  to  remove  their  dead 
— they  could  not  possibly  make  a  successful  attack 
upon  us  in  the  cave.  Behind  the  breastwork  that  we 
had  built  in  the  narrow  entrance,  and  armed  with  our 
repeating  rifles  and  revolvers,  we  were  absolutely  se 
cure. 


120  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

"It's  not  a  bad  thing  that  we're  safe,"  said  Young, 
"an*  that  we've  got  plenty  of  grub  an'  water,  an' 
even  lots  of  firewood ;  if  we've  got  t'  be  shut  up  here 
we  might  as  well  be  comfortable.  But  what  I  want  is 
a  through  ticket  for  home.  This  treasure  business  has 
gone  back  on  us  th'  worst  kind.  That  old  Fray  Fran 
cisco  had  his  eye  shut  up  by  th'  tall  talk  of  th'  fellow 
who  pretended  to  be  converted ;  and  th'  Cacique  just 
promiscuously  lied.  That's  about  the  size  of  it.  An' 
for  bein'  fools  enough  to  swallow  their  stuff,  here  we 
are,  as  Rayburn  says,  like  rats  in  a  cage." 

There  was  so  much  probability  in  what  Young  said 
that  I  did  not  attempt  to  argue  with  him;  yet  was  I 
convinced  that  in  what  Fray  Francisco  had  written, 
and  still  more  in  what  the  dying  Cacique  had  said  to 
me,  there  was  a  substantial  element  of  truth. 

Finding  that  nobody  replied  to  him,  for  all  of  us 
were  sore  at  heart  and  so  disposed  to  silence,  Young 
turned  to  the  statue  of  Chac-Mool  and  proceeded  to 
abuse  it  vigorously,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  idol 
atrous  product  of  the  Aztec  race  that  was  at  the  root 
of  all  our  troubles.  For,  as  he  truly  said,  had  there 
been  no  Aztecs  to  begin  with,  our  departure  on  a  wild- 
goose  chase  after  an  Aztec  treasure-house  would  have 
been  an  impossibility.  His  attention  having  been  thus 
fixed  upon  the  idol,  his  habit  of  investigation  got  the 
better  of  his  ill-will  towards  it,  and  he  mounted  the 
altar  to  examine  it  more  closely — continuing  the  while 
to  address  it  in  language  that  was  eminently  unparlia 
mentary. 

"  A  pretty-looking  sort  a  specimen  you  are!"  he  said, 


THE    SWINGING    STATUE.  121 

in  a  tone  of  vast  contempt.  "  But  you're  about  what 
I'd  expect  folks  like  that  friend  of  th'  Professor's,  th' 
Cacique,  t'  worship.  It  takes  a  low  sort  of  a  heathen, 
even  in  his  blindness,  t'  bow  down  to  a  stone  like  you 
— with  your  twisted  head,  an'  your  stubby  legs,  an' 
your  little  fryin'-pan  over  your  stomach.  Why,  where 
I  come  from  they  wouldn't  have  you  even  for  a  stone 
settee  in  a  park.  No,  you're  not  fit  even  t'  sit  on  — 
unless,  maybe,  it's  on  th'  flat  top  of  your  crooked 
head ;"  and  by  way  of  testing  this  possibility,  Young 
seated  himself  on  the  head  of  Chac-Mool. 

And  then  a  very  extraordinary  thing  happened. 
The  idol,  and  the  great  slab  of  stone  on  which  it  rested 
and  of  which  it  was  a  part,  slowly  moved ;  the  head 
sinking,  and  the  other  end  of  the  slab,  on  which  the 
legs  were  carved,  rising  in  the  air!  Young  sprang  up 
with  a  cry  as  he  felt  the  stone  sinking  beneath  him; 
and  the  figure,  relieved  of  his  weight,  settled  back  into 
its  former  position  with  a  slight  jar.  In  the  moment 
that  the  slab  was  in  the  air  there  had  come  from  under 
it  a  gleam  of  light. 

In  the  excitement  wrought  by  this  strange  accident 
our  hurts  were  forgotten;  and  we  eagerly  clambered 
upon  the  altar  to  investigate  the  matter  further,  while 
hope  and  wonder  thrilled  our  hearts. 

"Now,  then,  Young,"  said  Rayburn,  "try  it  again. 
It  looks  as  though  this  idol  wasn't  all  the  blackguard 
things  you've  been  calling  it,  by  a  long  shot." 

"  No,  I'll  be  hanged  if  I'll  try  it  again,"  Young  an 
swered.  "  Try  it  yourself,  if  you  want  to.  How  do  I 
know  what's  goin'  t'  happen  with  a  stone  thing  that 


122  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

goes  tippin'  around  that  way?  I  don't  mind  savin' 
that  I'm  a  good  deal  jolted,  an'  don't  feel  like  foolin' 
with  it  any  more.  Try  it  yourself,  if  you  want  to,  I 
say." 

"All  right,"  Rayburn  answered.  "You  and  the 
Professor  stand  here  where  you  can  grab  me  if  any 
thing  goes  wrong.  It  looks  to  me  as  though  there 
was  a  chance  for  us  of  some  sort  here,  and  I  mean  to 
see  what  it  is." 

Young  and  I  stood  on  each  side  of  Rayburn  and 
held  him  by  the  arms  as  he  seated  himself  on  the 
idol's  head.  Borne  down  by  his  weight,  the  head 
slowly  sank,  the  whole  fore -end  of  the  stone  slab 
falling  away  into  the  rock,  and  the  after-end  corre 
spondingly  rising  and  disclosing  a  squared  opening, 
through  which  came  a  strong  burst  of  light.  When 
the  head  was  down  to  the  level  of  the  rock,  and  the 
slab  stood  up  at  an  angle  of  nearly  fifty  degrees,  the 
movement  ceased.  Looking  into  the  opening  we  saw 
a  flight  of  a  dozen  stone  steps.  On  the  bottom  step 
the  sun  shone  brightly,  and  in  our  faces  blew  a  draught 
of  fresh,  sweet  air.  On  the  rock,  beside  the  stair-way, 
was  carved  the  King's  symbol,  with  the  arrow  point 
ing  downward. 

"Hurrah  !"  cried  Young.  "Here's  a  way  out — an' 
it  looks  as  if  that  old  monk  an'  th'  Cacique  weren't 
such  a  pair  of  blasted  liars  after  all !" 

Rayburn  jumped  up  to  have  a  look  with  the  rest  of 
us  ;  but  before  he  could  see  anything  the  statue  had 
fallen  into  place  again  and  the  opening  was  closed. 
"No  matter,  we  know  how  to  work  it,  now,"  he  eai<i 


THE    SWINGING   STATUE.  123 

"We  must  prop  it  up  somehow;  that's  all.  I  want  to 
have  a  look  at  this  thing.  There's  some  mighty  good 
engineering  shown  in  the  way  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
that  stone  has  been  calculated ;  and  there's  good  me 
chanism  in  the  way  it's  hung.  Here  she  goes  again. 
Just  chock  it  with  a  bit  of  rock  when  I  swing  it  open." 

"Well,  what  I'm  interested  in,"  said  Young,  "is  find- 
in'  out  what  sort  of  a  place  it'll  get  us  into.  It  looks 
to  me  as  if  we  might  be  goin'  to  strike  the  treasure 
right  smack  here." 

Much  the  same  notion  was  in  all  of  our  heads  by 
this  time,  and  we  were  full  of  eagerness — the  statue 
having  been  swung  again,  and  propped  in  place  with  a 
fragment  of  rock — as  we  went  down  the  little  stair. 
But  what  we  found  was  only  a  continuation  of  the 
canon — as  though,  by  some  curious  freak  of  nature, 
the  thin  walls  of  rock  enclosing  the  cave  had  been  left 
thus  in  the  very  middle  of  it.  Rayburn  drew  our  at 
tention  to  the  fact  that  we  were  on  the  crest  of  a 
divide,  for  a  spring  that  bubbled  up  here  flowed  away 
from  us ;  and  this  also  was  a  cheering  sign  that  the 
canon  had  an  outlet.  How  far  away  the  outlet  might 
be  we  could  not  tell ;  for  the  canon,  half  a  mile  or  so 
from  where  we  stood,  bent  sharply  to  the  right.  But 
being  thus  assured  that  a  way  of  some  sort  out  of  our 
prison  was  open  to  us,  we  turned  to  examine  the  work 
of  the  skilled  mechanics  who  in  some  far  past  time  had 
set  this  swinging  statue  in  its  place.  From  below, 
the  simple  apparatus,  that  yet  for  its  fitting  required 
so  high  a  grade  of  scientific  knowledge,  was  plainly  dis 
closed  to  us.  Into  the  great  slab  of  stone,  presumably 


124  THE    AZTEC    TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

running  through  it  from  side  to  side,  was  set  a  round 
bar  of  metal  —  the  same  bright  metal  of  which  the 
sword  was  made — more  than  a  foot  in  diameter ;  and 
this  worked  in  two  concave  metal  sockets  in  much  the 
same  manner  that  the  sockets  of  a  gun-carriage  hold 
the  trunnions  of  a  gun.  What  struck  Rayburn  as 
especially  remarkable  was  the  trueness  to  a  circle  of 
both  the  sockets  and  the  bar ;  both  showing,  as  he 
declared,  that  they  had  been  worked  upon  a  lathe. 
And  he  was  puzzled,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sword,  as  to 
the  composition  of  the  metal  that  thus  defied  oxidiza 
tion  through  long  periods  of  time.  "  Gold  is  the  only 
thing  that  fills  the  bill,"  he  said ;  "  but  a  bar  of  gold, 
even  of  that  size,  would  bend  double  under  such  a 
strain.  I'd  give  ten  dollars  for  a  chance  to  analyze  it 
— for  there's  a  bigger  fortune  in  putting  a  metal  like 
that  on  the  market  than  there  is  in  finding  this  treasure 
that  we're  hunting  for :  especially  if  it  turns  out  that 
there  isn't  any  treasure  to  find." 

"  Now,  don't  you  go  t'  runnin'  down  that  treasure," 
Young  struck  in.  "  Just  now  treasure  stock  is  up.  Me 
an'  that  idol  have  just  boomed  th'  market.  I'm  sorry 
I  called  Jack  Mullins,  or  whatever  his  name  is,  such  a 
lot  of  cuss- word  names.  I  take  'em  all  back.  He  isn't 
just  th'  sort  of  an  idol  that  I'd  pick  out  t'  worship 
myself,  at  least  not  as  a  steady  thing  ;  but  there  are 
good  points  about  him — especially  th'  way  he  tips  up. 
I  always  did  like  an  idol  that  tipped  up.  He's  done 
th'  square  thing  by  us  in  gettin'  us  out  all  right  from 
th'  worst  sort  of  a  hole  ;  an'  I  guess  th'  best  thing 
we  can  do  is  t'  yank  our  traps  out  of  that  cave  an' 


THE    SWINGING    STATUE.  125 

get  started  again.  Why,  for  all  we  know,  th'  treasure 
may  be  right  around  that  corner." 

There  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  soundness  of  Young's 
suggestion  in  regard  to  resuming  our  march ;  but  the 
very  serious  fact  confronted  us  that  we  now  must  do 
our  marching  on  foot.  To  get  the  horses  and  mules 
down  through  the  narrow  opening  was  simply  impos 
sible,  and  there  was  nothing  for  us  but  to  leave  them 
behind.  Rayburn  looked  very  grave  over  this  phase 
of  the  matter,  for  leaving  the  mules  meant  also  that 
we  must  leave  the  greater  part  of  our  ammunition  and 
stores.  That  these  things  would  be  abundantly  safe 
in  the  cave,  for  any  length  of  time,  was  not  to  the 
purpose  ;  the  essential  matter  was  that  we  would  be 
deprived  of  them.  It  was  hard,  too,  to  think  that  our 
animals  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians — for 
our  only  course  with  them  must  be  to  turn  them  loose 
in  the  canon,  whence  they  certainly  would  go  out  in 
search  of  pasture  into  the  valley,  and  so  be  captured ; 
but  it  was  still  harder  to  think  that  we  must  go  our 
selves  on  foot  and  with  a  scant  outfit  of  supplies. 

It  was  not  very  cheerfully,  therefore,  that  we  went 
back  into  the  cave  and  began  to  sort  out  from  our  packs 
the  articles  which  would  be  absolutely  necessary  to  our 
preservation  in  the  rough  work  among  the  mountains 
that  probably  was  before  us;  and  our  shoulders  already 
ached  a  little  in  anticipation  of  the  heavy  loads  which 
they  must  bear. 

It  was  while  we  were  thus  engaged  that  Pablo  beg 
ged  that  I  would  step  aside  with  him  for  a  moment 
that  he  might  speak  to  my  ear  alone.  I  saw  that  there 


126  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

were  tears  upon  his  cheeks,  and  as  he  spoke  he  scarcely 
could  restrain  his  sobs. 

"  Senor,"  he  said,  "  you  know  El  Sabio  ?" 

"  Surely,  Pablo." 

"  You  know,  senor,  that  he  is  a  very  small  ass." 

"  It  is  true." 

"  And  you  know — you  know,  senor,  how  very  ten 
derly  we  love  each  other.  Since  I  came  away  from  my 
father  and  my  mother,  in  Guadalajara,  and  from  my  lit 
tle  brother  and  sister  there,  El  Sabio  is  everything  in 
the  world  to  me,  senor. .  I — I  cannot  leave  him,  senor. 
I  should  die  if  we  were  parted;  and  El  Sabio  would 
die  also.  And  you  say  that  you  have  perceived  that 
he  is  a  very  small  ass.  Do  not  ask  me  to  leave  him, 
senor." 

"But  we  cannot  take  him  with  us,  Pablo.  What 
would  you  have  ?" 

"  That  is  it,  senor ;  truly,  I  think  that  we  can  take 
him  with  us.  You  see,  he  is  so  little ;  and  it  is  quite 
wonderful  through  how  small  a  place  El  Sabio  can 
crawl.  He  can  creep  like  a  kitten,  senor,  and  he  can 
make  himself  into  a  very  little  bunch.  And  so  I  think 
that  he  can — if  we  help  him,  you  know,  seilor — and 
speak  to  him  so  that  he  will  not  be  alarmed,  and  will 
try  to  do  his  very  best  to  make  a  small  bunch  of  him 
self — I  think  that  we  can  get  him  down  through  the 
hole,  and  so  take  him  with  us.  But  if  we  cannot,  senor, 
then — you  must  forgive  me,  senor — I  love  him  so  very 
dearly,  you  know — then  I  will  stay  with  him  here. 
It  would  be  better  so  than  that  El  Sabio  should  think 
I  no  longer  loved  him.  And  he  woulcl  think  that, 


THE    SWINGING    STATUE.  127 

senor,  were  I  to  go  with  you  and  leave  him  here  among 
these  dreadful  dead  gentlemen  alone." 

It  had  not  occurred  to  any  of  us  that  El  Sabio  might 
be  condensed  sufficiently  to  go  through  the  narrow  way; 
but  if  he  truly  were  the  collapsable  donkey  that  Pablo 
declared  him  to  be,  we  had  a  good  deal  to  be  thankful 
for.  He  was  a  sturdy  little  creature,  and  his  small 
back  could  bear  easily  twice  as  much  as  any  two  of 
ours.  With  his  assistance  we  certainly  would  be  able 
to  carry  with  us  all  of  our  ammunition  and  arms — of 
which  defensive  stuff  we  could  not  well  afford  to  spare 
the  smallest  part. 

And  El  Sabio,  after  Pablo  had  made  a  long  expla 
nation  of  the  case  to  him,  and  had  told  him  precisely 
what  we  expected  him  to  do — to  all  of  which  he  listen 
ed  gravely  and  with  an  astonishing  air  of  comprehend 
ing  what  was  said  to  him — seemed  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  the  situation,  and  to  try  his  very  best  to  meet 
its  requirements.  It  is  a  puzzle  to  me  to  this  day  how 
El  Sabio  managed  to  shrink  himself  so  that  we  got  him 
through  that  narrow  hole;  but  he  certainly  did  manage 
it — and  then  went  down  the  stone  stair-way  backward, 
as  though  he  had  been  trained  to  be  a  trick  donkey 
from  his  youth  up.  When  the  feat  was  accomplished, 
and  he  stood  safely  out  in  the  canon,  the  expressions 
of  love,  and  of  congratulation  upon  his  cleverness, 
which  Pablo  lavished  upon  him  were  enough  to  have 
turned  completely  a  less  serious-minded  donkey's  head. 

Such  of  our  stores  as  we  were  compelled  to  leave 
behind  us,  including  our  saddles,  and  the  pack-saddles, 
and  all  the  heavier  portion  of  our  camp  equipage,  we 


128  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

heaped  in  one  corner  of  the  cave  and  piled  rocks  over ; 
and  then  we  turned  our  poor  horses  and  the  mules  loose 
in  the  canon,  feeling  certain  that  their  instinct  would 
lead  them  out  to  the  valley  in  search  of  food.  It  went 
to  our  hearts  to  know  that  these  good  beasts  of  ours 
were  doomed  to  hard  service  under  Indian  masters  to 
the  end  of  their  days. 

All  being  thus  in  readiness  for  our  advance,  we  went 
down  the  stair-way  beneath  the  swinging  statue,  and 
from  beneath  pulled  out  the  piece  of  rock  which  prop 
ped  up  the  great  mass  of  stone.  With  a  heavy  jar  it 
fell  and  closed  the  passage- way,  and  we  prepared  to  start. 
Just  then  Fray  Antonio  remembered  that  he  had  left 
on  a  ledge  in  the  cave — that  we  had  used  as  a  shelf  for 
the  storage  of  various  small  matters  during  our  sojourn 
there — a  little  volume  that  he  dearly  loved:  the  Medi 
tations  of  Thomas  d  Kempis.  He  was  full  of  remorse 
for  his  forgetfulness,  and  did  not  ask  that  we  should 
turn  back  to  get  his  book  for  him;  yet  his  distress 
over  the  loss  of  it  was  so  evident  that  we  had  not  the 
heart  to  go  on. 

"  It  will  take  only  ten  minutes  to  go  back,"  said  Ray- 
burn,  and  as  he  spoke  he  ran  up  the  stair-way  and  set  his 
shoulders  to  sway  up  the  stone.  In  a  moment  he  call 
ed  :  "  Just  come  here,  Young,  and  help,  will  you  ?  It 
don't  work  as  easily  from  this  side."  But  even  with 
Young's  help  the  stone  did  not  move.  Then  the  rest 
of  us  joined  these  two,  and  all  five  of  us  together  pushed 
with  all  our  strength — and  the  stone  did  not  yield  by 
so  much  as  the  breadth  of  a  hair!  And  then  rather  a 
queer  look  came  into  Rayburn's  face,  and  he  said:  "I 


THE    SUBMERGED    CITY.  129 

think  that  I  understand  what  is  the  matter.  The  point 
of  leverage  falls  beyond  the  edge  of  the  hole.  From 
where  we  have  a  chance  to  push,  we  are  working 
against  the  whole  weight  of  the  stone.  We  might  as 
well  try  to  lift  the  mountain  itself !"  And  then  he 
added,  "I  guess  we'd  better  give  this  thing  up  and 
start." 

Very  curious  feelings  were  in  our  breasts  as  we  pick 
ed  up  our  packs  and  set  off  along  the  caiion  ;  for  we 
knew  that  by  that  way  only  could  we  go,  and  that,  no 
matter  what  was  ahead  of  us,  our  retreat  was  cut  off. 


XL 

THE    SUBMERGED    CITY. 

A  SWEET,  warm  wind  blew  in  our  faces  as  we  set 
off  along  the  canon ;  the  sun  shone  joyously  upon  us, 
and  there  was  that  fresh,  tingling  quality  in  the  air 
that  is  peculiar  to  regions  high  above  the  level  of  the 
sea.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  wray  behind  us  was 
irrevocably  barred,  and  that  no  matter  what  dangers 
were  ahead  of  us  we  had  no  option  but  to  face  them, 
our  spirits  were  strong  within  us,  and  we  went  blithe 
ly  on  our  way.  Young,  who  was  in  advance,  began 
to  whistle  "Yankee  Doodle";  and  presently,  from  the 
rear  of  our  procession,  where  Pablo  walked  beside  the 
heavily  laden  El  Sabio,  there  broke  forth  a  mouth- 
organ  accompaniment  to  this  spirited  melody. 

The  bed  of  the  canon,  through  which  a  little  stream 
9 


130  THE    AZTEC   TKEASlJRE-HOtTSB. 

ran,  fell  away  before  us  along  a  slight  down  grade ; 
which  descent,  since  we  found  also  a  good  foot-way 
beside  the  stream,  made  walking  comparatively  easy 
notwithstanding  our  heavy  back-loads.  Now  and  then 
our  way  would  be  barred  by  masses  of  rock  fallen 
from  above,  and  by  whole  trees  blown  down  from  their 
insecure  roothold  on  the  rocky  cliffs  ;  and  twice  we 
came  to  steep  descents  which  would  have  given  us 
trouble  had  we  not  brought  along  the  ropes  wherewith 
our  packs  had  been  bound.  Shifting  El  Sabio  down 
these  places  was  our  hardest  task;  but  with  the  ropes, 
and  the  intelligent  part  that  he  took  in  the  perform 
ance,  we  managed  it  successfully. 

So  we  went  on  for  half  a  dozen  miles  or  more  through 
the  windings  of  the  canon,  but  keeping  all  the  while  a 
sharp  lookout  ahead — for  in  the  mouth  of  this  end  of 
the  canon,  supposing  it  to  open  as  at  the  other  end 
upon  a  grassy  valley,  we  well  enough  might  come  upon 
an  Indian  camp.  And  that  we  had  come  upon  such  a 
camp  we  felt  quite  sure  when,  late  in  the  afternoon, 
Rayburn  signalled  us  from  his  advanced  position — he 
having  gone  to  the  head  of  the  line  in  Young's  place 
— to  stand  still  until  he  should  reconnoitre  a  little. 
Being  thus  halted,  we  unslung  our  rifles  and  loosened 
our  pistols  in  their  holsters,  so  that  we  might  be  ready 
in  case  fighting  suddenly  should  begin ;  and  Rayburn 
went  on  around  a  turn  in  the  canon,  and  for  a  while 
we  lost  sight  of  him. 

Presently  he  returned  and  signalled  us  to  join  him, 
but  to  move  cautiously.  When  we  came  up  with  him 
he  led  us  to  the  bend  in  the  canon,  and  there  a  broad 


THE    SUBMERGED    CITY.  131 

view  opened  to  us ;  for  the  canon  suddenly  widened 
into  a  great  valley,  that  was  everywhere,  so  far  as  we 
could  see,  surrounded  by  walls  of  rock  almost  perpen 
dicular  and  vastly  high.  In  the  bottom  of  the  valley 
was  a  broad  expanse  of  delectably  green  meadow-land, 
broken  here  and  there  by  groves  of  trees ;  and  in  the 
valley's  middle  part,  reaching  from  side  to  side  of  it, 
was  a  lovely  lake,  whereof  the  blue  was  flecked  by 
white  reflections  of  certain  little  idly  drifting  clouds: 
the  sight  of  all  which  greenness  and  fair  water  and 
broad  range  of  sky — after  being  for  so  long  a  season 
pent  up  in  rocky  fastnesses  and  wandering  over  brown, 
sun-baked  plains — fairly  brought  tears  into  my  eyes 
because  of  its  fresh  and  open  loveliness.  And  in  the 
tender  feeling  that  thus  stirred  my  heart,  as  I  could 
see  in  the  quick  glance  that  he  gave  me,  Fray  Antonio 
also  keenly  sympathized;  for  his  nature  was  very  open 
at  all  times  to  such  gentle  influences. 

But  Rayburn  and  Young,  as  was  evident  from  their 
anxious  looks,  were  thinking  only  of  the  dangers  which 
this  lovely  valley  might  hold  in  store  for  us  ;  for  the 
shore  of  the  lake  nearest  to  us  had  many  houses  built 
upon  it,  and  we  could  see  faintly,  for  the  width  of  the 
lake  was  nearly  two  miles,  that  there  were  other  houses 
upon  its  farther  shore.  Standing  hidden  behind  a  rock, 
Rayburn  examined  the  valley  carefully  through  a  field- 
glass  for  a  long  while. 

"  I  must  say  this  place  beats  me,"  he  said  at  last,  as 
he  put  the  glass  down  from  his  eyes.  "There's  no 
doubt  about  there  being  a  town  down  there ;  but  I 
can't  make  out  a  sign  of  a  single  living  thing.  And 


132  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

what  is  still  queerer,  the  houses  seem  to  go  right  down 
into  the  lake.  If  you'll  take  the  glass,  Professor,  you'll 
see  that  a  few  of  them,  on  this  side,  stand  all  right  on 
dry  ground;  and  then,  farther  down  the  sloping  bank, 
are  a  lot  in  the  water ;  and  beyond  these  there  seem  to 
be  some  roofs  just  showing  above  the  level  of  the  lake- 
And  as  far  as  I  can  make  out,  things  are  just  the  same 
over  on  the  far  shore.  It  looks  as  if  the  lake  had  risen 
after  the  town  was  built." 

As  I  looked  through  the  glass  I  saw  that  what  Ray- 
burn  had  said  was  true  ;  and  I  observed  with  much  in 
terest  that  many  of  the  houses  were  large,  and  that  all 
seemed  to  be  well  built  of  stone.  Their  construction 
reminded  me  of  the  buildings  which  M.  Charnay  ex 
amined  at  Tula,  and  I  was  eager  to  get  down  to  them 
and  examine  them  closely.  Young  and  Fray  Antonio 
took  the  glass,  in  turn,  and  as  none  of  us  saw  any  signs 
of  life  in  the  valley,  we  decided  to  go  on.  And  we 
were  mightily  stimulated  in  this  resolve  by  finding, 
just  at  the  end  of  the  canon,  where  the  sharp  descent 
began,  a  graving  of  the  King's  symbol  on  the  rock, 
with  the  arrow  pointing  directly  down  the  steep  path. 

"Here's  a  walled  city,  for  sure,"  said  Young;  "and 
if  this  is  where  th'  treasure-house  is,  we  won't  raise  a 
row  because  th'  folks  have  gone  off  an'  left  it.  Just 
whoop  up  that  burro  of  yours,  Pablo,  an'  let's  be  get- 
tin'  along.  It's  a  pity  we  had  t'  leave  th'  mules  be 
hind.  If  th'  treasure's  in  silver,  we  can't  get  away 
with  much  of  it  with  nothin'  but  El  Sabio  t'  pack  it 
on." 

Pablo  3id  not  understand  this  speech,,  of  course,  but 


THE    SUBMERGED    CITY.  133 

he  recognized  his  own  name  and  the  name  of  El  Sabio, 
and  Young's  gestures  helped  out  the  meaning  of  his 
words.  Therefore  Pablo  grinned,  and  "  whooped  up  " 
El  Sabio;  and  we  all  set  off  briskly  down  the  steep 
decline. 

Presently  we  found  our  way  much  easier  than  we 
had  been  led  to  expect  by  its  rough  beginning.  As 
we  advanced  along  it  there  was  ample  evidence  that 
the  path  had  been  graded  and  smoothed  by  the  hand 
of  man.  In  several  places  it  was  carried  on  a  terrace 
supported  by  a  well-laid  retaining  wall ;  a  deep  crevice 
was  spanned  by  long  slabs  of  stone,  so  placed  as  to 
form  a  bridge;  and  where  it  turned  sharply  around  a 
high  shoulder  of  rock,  the  face  of  the  cliff  had  been 
quarried  away.  Yet  that  this  all  had  been  done  in  a 
very  remote  time  was  shown  by  the  fragments  of  rock 
which  had  fallen  into  it  here  and  there,  and  which  were 
blackened  by  age.  "The  same  fellow  who  set  that 
statue  in  place  probably  was  in  charge  here,"  was  Ray- 
burn's  comment,  "  and  he  was  a  first-rate  engineer.  I 
wish  I  knew  how  he  managed  to  swing  those  stone 
slabs  over  that  crevice.  There's  no  room  there  to  set 
up  a  derrick,  and  it  would  puzzle  me  to  set  blocks  like 
that  without  one." 

And  Rayburn's  admiration  for  the  professional  skill 
of  this  engineer  of  a  long  past  age  was  still  further 
excited  when  the  path  came  fairly  into  the  valley,  and 
thence  was  carried  downward  along  the  gentle  slope 
towards  the  lake,  by  a  perfectly  even  two-per-cent. 
grade,  over  a  broad  way  paved  smoothly  with  squared 
blocks  of  stone.  And  Fray  Antonio  and  I  were  much 


134  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

interested  in  this  work  also,  for  we  both  perceived  the 
identity  of  its  structure  with  the  paved  way  that  is 
found  on  the  east  coast  of  Yucatan,  and  that  is  contin 
ued  on  the  island  of  Cozumel. 

By  this  paved  avenue  we  entered  the  city — for,  as 
we  presently  found,  it  was  entitled  to  this  more  digni 
fied  name.  The  first  houses  that  we  came  to  were  but 
small  buildings  enclosing  a  single  room — such  as  are 
found,  inhabited  by  working-people,  on  the  outskirts 
of  any  Mexican  city  at  the  present  day.  They  were 
silent  and  deserted ;  but  they  gave,  at  first  sight,  the 
impression  of  being  but  momentarily  abandoned,  for 
the  belongings  of  their  owners  still  remained  in  them 
as  though  the  every-day  affairs  of  life  still  went  on 
within  their  walls.  In  the  first  that  we  entered  we 
found  an  earthen  pot  still  standing  on  a  sort  of  fire 
place,  and  beside  the  fireplace  a  little  pile  of  charcoal. 
There  was  a  fragment  of  bone  in  the  pot,  and  beneath 
it  were  some  scraps  of  charcoal  which  remained  un- 
consumed.  It  was  as  though  cooking  had  been  going 
on  here  but  an  hour  before.  Rayburn  even  put  his 
hand  into  the  ashes  to  feel  if  they  still  were  warm. 
But  closer  investigation  gave  us  a  juster  notion  of  the 
long  lapse  of  time  that  must  have  occurred  since  any 
fire  had  burned  upon  this  hearth.  In  one  corner  of 
the  room  we  found  a  pile  of  mats,  but  on  touching 
these  they  crumbled  into  fragments  in  our  hands;  and 
the  bone  in  the  pot  was  so  dry  and  so  porous  that  it 
was  light  as  cork. 

As  in  this  first  house  that  we  examined,  so  was  it  in 
all  of  them.  All,  at  the  first  glance,  seemed  to  have 


THE    SUBMERGED    CITY.  135 

been  but  a  moment  before  deserted;  but  all  bad  signs 
about  tbem  wbich  showed  that  they  had  been  aban 
doned  for  a  very  long  time.  In  one  we  found  a  loom 
— in  construction  very  like  that  which  the  Navajo  Ind 
ians  use  at  the  present  day — on  which  hung,  partly 
completed,  a  sheer  filament  that  once  had  been  some 
sort  of  heavy  woollen  cloth.  In  another,  a  cotton  gar 
ment  was  lying  carelessly  upon  a  shelf,  as  though  but 
a  moment  before  cast  aside ;  yet,  as  I  tried  to  pick  it 
up,  it  crumbled  between  my  fingers  into  a  fine  powder. 

Of  humanity,  the  only  sign  that  we  found  anywhere 
about  this  grim  and  desert  place  was  the  dried,  shriv 
elled  remnant  of  a  woman  that  we  came  upon  in  an 
upper  room  of  one  of  the  larger  houses  farther  on. 
She  was  lying  upon  a  bed  of  mats,  partly  turned  upon 
her  side,  and  one  arm  was  stretched  out  towards  an 
earthen  cup  that  stood  just  beyond  her  reach  upon  the 
floor.  There  was  strong  pathos  in  the  action  of  the 
figure,  for  it  told  of  the  keen  thirst  of  fever — of  weak 
ness  so  extreme  that  the  inch  or  two  between  the  hand 
and  the  cup  was  a  gulf  impassable  —  of  a  moaning 
struggle  after  the  water  so  longed  for  —  and  then,  at 
last,  of  death  in  that  utter  and  desolate  loneliness. 
And  what  added  to  the  ghastliness  of  it  all  was  that  a 
thin  ray  of  sunlight,  coming  through  a  crevice  in  the 
wall,  struck  upon  the  woman's  teeth — whence  the  lips 
had  dried  away — and  by  its  gleaming  there  made  on 
her  face  a  smile. 

As  we  came  close  to  the  lake,  we  perceived,  as  Ray- 
burn  already  had  discerned  by  the  aid  of  the  glass, 
that  houses,  partially  submerged,  actually  rose  from 


136  THE  AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

the  water,  and  that  houses  of  which  only  the  roofs 
were  visible  were  farther  on.  That  this  whole  valley 
was  the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano  was  sufficiently 
evident ;  and  we  could  only  surmise  that  in  later  times 
some  fresh  cataclysm  of  nature  had  poured  suddenly 
into  it  a  vast  body  of  water,  and  so  had  submerged 
the  city  that  had  been  builded  here.  Whatever  had 
brought  about  the  catastrophe,  it  evidently  had  come 
with  a  most  appalling  suddenness.  Everywhere  the 
condition  of  the  houses  showed  how  hastily  they  had 
been  abandoned ;  and  the  wild  hurry  of  flight  was 
shown  still  more  clearly  in  the  case  of  the  woman — 
whose  surroundings  gave  evidence  that  she  had  been  a 
person  of  consequence — deserted  in  her  age  or  infirm 
ity  and  left  lonely  to  die. 

Young's  face  wore  a  melancholy  expression  as  we 
stood  upon  the  shore  of  the  lake,  and  looked  out  across 
it  towards  the  faintly  seen  western  shore.  "  If  this 
is  th'  place  we're  huntin'  for,"  he  said,  "  I  guess  our 
treasure-  stock  is  pretty  badly  watered,  unless  some 
body's  had  th'  sense  t'  keep  th'  treasure  dry  over  on 
th'  other  side.  We'd  better  move  over  there,  I  reckon, 
an'  take  a  look  for  it,  especially  as  we've  got  t'  go 
that  way  anyhow  in  order  t'  get  out.  There  ought  t' 
be  some  sort  of  a  path  around  th'  lake,  between  th' 
edge  of  th'  water  and  th'  cliffs." 

But  when  we  came  to  examine  into  this  matter  we 
found  that  there  was  no  path  at  all.  On  each  side  of 
the  valley  the  walls  of  rock  rose  directly  from  the 
water,  sharp  and  sheer. 

"Well,"  said  Rayburn,when  we  had  finished  our  in- 


THE    SUBMERGED    CITY.  137 

spection,  "  we've  got  to  get  across  somehow.  I  guess 
we'll  have  to  sail  in,  the  first  thing  to-morrow  morn 
ing,  and  build  a  raft.  These  pine-trees  down  here  by 
the  water  will  cut  easy  and  float  well,  and  there's  some 
comfort  in  that,  anyway.  But  what  I'm  after  right 
now  is  my  supper." 

Pablo  already  had  started  a  fire,  having  first  un 
packed  El  Sabio,  that  he  might  refresh  himself  by 
rolling  on  the  soft,  green  grass  and  by  eating  his  fill 
of  it,  and  Young  presently  had  some  ham  fried  and 
some  coffee  boiled.  We  had  counted  upon  having 
fresh  meat  for  supper  that  night,  for  there  was  every 
thing  in  the  look  of  the  valley  to  promise  that  we 
would  find  game  there ;  but,  so  far,  not  a  four-footed 
thing  nor  a  bird  had  we  seen,  nor  even  signs  of  fish  in 
the  lake. 

In  the  morning  we  got  out  the  axes  and  went  to  work 
at  the  building  of  the  raft ;  and,  notwithstanding  what 
Rayburn  had  said  in  regard  to  the  ease  of  cutting 
them,  I  must  confess  that  for  my  part  I  found  the 
cutting  of  pine-trees  very  wearying  and  painful.  My 
hands  were  blistered  by  it,  and  the  muscles  of  my  back 
were  made  extremely  sore  by  it  for  several  days.  In 
deed,  the  construction  of  a  raft  big  enough  to  float  us 
all,  and  our  heavy  packs,  and  El  Sabio,  was  a  serious 
undertaking.  We  spent  two  days  and  a  half  over  it, 
and  I  never  in  my  life  was  more  thankful  for  anything 
than  I  was  when  at  last  that  wretched  raft  was  done. 
As  Young  observed,  as  he  regarded  our  finished  work 
critically,  there  was  no  style  about  it — for  it  was  only 
a  lot  of  rough  logs,  of  which  the  upper  and  lower  layers 


138  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

ran  fore  and  aft  and  the  middle  layer  transversely,  the 
whole  bound  together  by  our  pack-ropes — but  it  was 
large  enough  for  our  purposes,  and  it  was  solid  and 
strong. 

In  the  late  afternoon  we  carried  our  belongings  on 
board  of  it,  and  Pablo  succeeded  by  dint  of  much  en 
treaty  in  inducing  El  Sabio  to  board  it  also,  and  we 
pushed  off  from  shore.  For  driving  the  clumsy  thing 
forward  we  had  made  four  rough  paddles,  which  well 
enough  served  our  purpose,  for  there  was  no  current 
whatever  in  the  lake  and  the  air  was  still. 

As  we  went  onward  we  discovered  how  considerable 
the  city  was  that  here  lay  submerged.  Through  the 
perfectly  clear  water  we  could  see  to  a  great  depth, 
and  beneath  us  in  every  direction  were  paved  streets, 
lined  with  houses  well  built  of  stone.  Near  the  centre 
of  the  valley  the  size  of  the  houses  greatly  increased, 
and  the  fashion  of  their  building  was  more  stately ; 
and  fronting  upon  a  great  open  square  in  the  very  cen 
tre  of  the  city  was  a  building  of  such  extraordinary 
size  that  we  took  it  to  be  the  palace  of  a  king ;  but 
here  the  water  was  so  deep  that  we  could  make  out 
but  faintly  the  looming  far  below  us  of  its  mighty 
walls.  Never  have  I  been  more  pained  than  I  then 
was ;  for  in  that  place  I  found  myself  close  to  making 
discoveries  of  surpassing  archaeological  value,  and  yet 
I  was  as  completely  cut  off  from  them  as  though  they 
had  no  existence. 

Just  beyond  the  palace,  as  we  went  onward,  our  raft 
almost  touched  the  roof  of  a  noble  building  that  stood 
upon  the  top  of  a  vast  pyramidal  mound,  the  base  of 


THE   SUBMERGED   CITY.  139 

which  we  could  see  but  dimly  far  down  through  the 
waters  of  the  lake.  This,  evidently,  had  been  the  chief 
temple  of  the  city ;  and  as  we  passed  over  it  and  came 
to  its  eastern  side,  we  had  ghastly  and  certain  proof  of 
the  terrible  suddenness  with  which  the  city  had  been 
overwhelmed.  On  the  broad  terrace  before  the  temple 
was  the  sacrificial  stone,  and  upon  this  dark  mass  we 
saw  distinctly  the  gleaming  of  human  bones ;  and  as 
we  peered  down  into  the  water  we  perceived  that  all 
the  terrace  was  strewn  thickly  with  human  bones  also, 
showing  that  when  the  rush  of  water  came  many  thou 
sands  of  human  beings  had  here  perished  miserably. 
For  a  little  while,  no  doubt,  all  the  surface  of  the  wa 
ter  round  about  where  we  were  had  been  dotted  thick 
ly  with  the  bodies  of  the  drowned  which  had  floated 
upward ;  and  then,  one  by  one,  they  had  sunk  again 
to  the  place  where  death  first  found  them — where  their 
flesh  wasted  away  from  them  until  only  their  gleaming 
bones  remained. 

I  pictured  to  myself  the  dreadful  scene  that  once 
had  passed,  down  there  below  us,  where  now  was  only 
the  calm  serenity  of  ancient  death :  the  great  crowd 
collected  to  witness  the  sacrifice,  and  then  the  sudden 
coming  of  the  waters — possibly  so  quickly  that  the 
victim,  held  down  by  the  neck-yoke  upon  the  sacrifi 
cial  stone,  was  drowned  ere  there  was  time  to  slay  him. 
This  great  mound  would  be  the  last  of  all  to  be  cov 
ered,  and  the  wretched  people  gathered  there  must 
have  seen  their  city  disappear  beneath  the  waters  be 
fore  death  came  to  them.  No  doubt  they  thought 
themselves  safe  in  that  high  place,  made  sacred  by  the 


140  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

presence  of  their  gods.  And  when  the  water  did  reach 
them,  what  a  writhing  and  struggling  there  must  have 
been  for  a  little  while ;  what  a  crushing  of  the  weak 
by  the  strong  in  mad  efforts  to  gain  even  a  moment's 
safety  upon  some  higher  standing-place !  And  then, 
at  last,  the  water  rose  triumphant  in  its  swelling  maj 
esty  over  all — and  beneath  its  placid  surface  were  hid 
the  silenced  terrors  of  all  that  commotion  of  mortal 
agony,  whereof  the  outcome  was  the  peaceful  and  eter 
nal  calm  of  death. 


XII. 

IN   THE    VALLEY    OP    DEATH. 

As  the  raft  approached  the  western  shore  of  the 
lake  we  perceived  beneath  us  no  longer  houses,  but 
large  walled  enclosures  which  plainly  had  been  gar 
dens  of  pleasure — for  gaunt  trees,  symmetrically  plant 
ed  in  groves  and  beside  stone -paved  path -ways,  yet 
stood  in  them;  and  seats  of  carved  stone  were  placed 
in  what  once  had  been  shaded  nooks ;  and  in  many  of 
the  gardens  were  carved  stone  fountains  of  elegant 
design.  Between  the  city  and  what  once  had  been 
its  charming  suburb  extended  a  broad  paved  way,  like 
that  which  we  had  found  upon  the  eastern  shore ;  and 
this  paved  way  was  continued  on  the  dry  ground 
above  the  present  level  of  the  lake  towards  the  cliffs 
westward.  On  the  high  western  shore  were  a  few 
houses,  large  and  handsome,  and  having  walled  gar- 


IN  THE  VALLEY  OP  DEATH.          141 

dens  around  them,  which  evidently  had  belonged  to 
persons  of  great  wealth  and  consequence. 

In  these  we  found  shadowy  remnants  of  a  past  mag 
nificence.  On  many  of  the  walls  were  hangings,  once 
rich  and  heavy,  that  now  were  mere  films  of  ghostly 
stuff  held  together  by  the  many  gold  threads  which 
had  been  woven  into  their  fabric.  Pottery,  wrought 
into  beautiful  shapes,  yet  ornamented  with  designs 
that  told  of  a  but  half-redeemed  barbarism,  was  scat 
tered  about  everywhere,  and  scarcely  a  piece  was  bro 
ken.  Some  very  handsome  weapons  we  found  also — 
swords  and  spears  and  knives  —  of  the  same  curious 
metal  as  the  sword  which  Pablo  so  opportunely  had 
laid  hands  upon  in  the  canon,  but  far  more  finely  fin 
ished  and  more  delicate  in  design.  And  of  this  same 
metal  was  made  a  great  throne,  as  it  seemed  to  us  to 
be,  that  was  in  the  largest  room  of  the  finest  of  all  the 
houses ;  a  house  that  we  believed  was  once  the  pleas 
ure  palace  of  the  king.  The  audience -chamber  in 
which  this  throne  stood  was  of  finely  wrought  stone 
work,  whereof  the  whole  surface  was  covered  with 
low-reliefs  of  men  and  animals — scenes  of  battle,  of 
council,  and  of  the  chase — surrounded  by  curious 
tracery  of  such  orderly  design  that  Fray  Antonio 
agreed  with  me  in  the  belief  that  it  was  some  sort  of 
hieroglyphic  writing.  But  this  matter  is  treated  of 
so  fully  in  my  Pre-  Columbian  Conditions  on  the  Con 
tinent  of  N^orth  America  that  I  need  not  enter  upon 
discussion  of  it  here. 

But  in  none  of  these  houses,  much  to  the  disappoint 
ment  of  Kayburn  and  Young,  did  we  find  any  scrap 


142  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

of  the  treasure  for  which  they  so  earnestly  longed. 
And,  truly,  if  treasure  remained  in  this  wrecked  city, 
it  was  less  likely  to  be  in  these  outlying  country 
houses  than  in  some  strong  building  in  the  city's  heart ; 
and  so  beyond  their  reach  in  the  depths  of  the  lake. 
If  this  were  indeed  the  walled  city  for  which  we  were 
searching — as  well  it  might  be,  for  never  was  a  city 
surrounded  by  grander  walls  than  the  mighty  cliffs 
wherewith  the  valley  was  encompassed — our  search 
was  like  to  be  a  vain  one  so  far  as  mere  treasure  was 
concerned ;  though  I,  for  my  part,  felt  myself  well  re 
paid  for  all  that  I  had  thus  far  suffered  by  the  discov 
ery  of  so  much  that  was  of  archaeological  value.  In 
this  purer  pleasure  Fray  Antonio  shared ;  yet  was  he 
also,  dissatisfied — for  he  had  come  with  us  that  he 
might  preach  Christianity  to  living  souls:  and  here 
were  only  the  bones  of  countless  dead. 

The  paved  way  still  led  westward,  and  we  followed 
it — for  to  the  westward  must  be  the  valley's  outlet. 
As  it  rose  to  a  higher  level  the  way  widened;  and  on 
each  side  of  it  was  a  stone  statue  of  the  god  Chac- 
Mool.  As  we  came  to  these  statues  Young  proceeded, 
in  a  most  business-like  way,  and  with  no  apparent  ap 
preciation  of  the  queer  figure  that  he  cut,  to  sit  down 
in  turn  on  each  of  their  heads.  And  he  was  might 
ily  disappointed  when  he  found  that  neither  of  them 
stirred.  "  They're  not  th'  tippin'  kind,"  he  said,  rue 
fully,  as  he  got  down  from  the  head  of  the  second  one 
and  looked  at  it  with  an  expression  of  reproach. 

But  his  countenance  brightened,  when  we  had  gone 
on  a  little  farther,  as  he  caught  sight  of  another  and 


IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  DEATH.  143 

much  larger  statue  of  the  god  that  was  set  in  a  great 
niche  cut  in  the  cliff  at  the  end  of  the  paved  way.  To 
prepare  here  the  god's  abiding-place  very  arduous  la 
bor  had  been  undertaken.  For  a  space  fully  one  hun 
dred  feet  high  and  as  many  broad  the  whole  face  of 
the  cliff  had  been  quarried  into ;  making  a  deep  recess 
that  was  rounded  above,  and  that  from  beneath  was 
approached  by  a  long  flight  of  steps  cut  from  the  solid 
rock.  In  the  centre  of  the  recess,  upon  the  terraced 
space  above  the  stairs,  was  a  huge  squared  mass  of 
stone,  on  which  the  great  stone  figure  of  Chac-Mool 
rested.  The  opening  faced  directly  eastward,  and  as 
we  approached  it  the  stone  figure  was  seen  but  indis 
tinctly  in  the  duskiness  of  the  recess,  over  which,  and 
far  beyond  which  into  the  valley,  fell  the  shadow  of 
the  mighty  cliff.  From  in  front  of  this  great  altar  all 
the  valley  was  open  to  us  ;  and  hence,  before  the  lake 
swallowed  it,  every  part  of  the  city  must  have  been 
clearly  visible  in  ancient  times.  As  we  mounted  the 
steps  and  approached  the  idol  I  observed  that  Pab 
lo  hung  back  a  little;  as  though  in  the  depths  of  his 
nature  some  chord  had  been  touched,  some  ancient  in 
stinct  in  his  blood  aroused,  that  filled  his  soul  with 
awe. 

Certainly  there  was  no  suggestion  of  awe  in  Young's 
demeanor  towards  the  statue.  With  a  monkey -like 
quickness,  that  I  would  not  have  given  his  stout  legs 
and  heavy  body  credit  for,  he  climbed  upon  the  altar 
and  plumped  himself  down  on  the  head  of  the  figure 
almost  in  a  moment.  But  again  he  was  disappointed, 
for  the  idol  did  not  stir.  As  we  examined  it  closely 


144  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

we  perceived  that  its  fixedness  was  not  unreasonable ; 
for  the  figure,  and  the  altar  on  which  it  rested,  were 
one  solid  mass  of  rock  that  itself  was  a  part  of  the 
cliif — left  standing  here  when  the  niche  around  it  was 
hollowed  out.  A  very  prodigious  piece  of  stone-cut 
ting  all  this  was,  and  as  I  contemplated  it  I  was  filled 
with  admiration  of  the  skill  of  them  who  had  achieved 
it.  But  Young  came  down  from  the  idol  moodily;  and 
he  said  that  the  way  these  people  had  of  playing 
tricks  on  travellers,  by  making  Mullinses  that  didn't 
tip  when  they  ought  to  tip,  was  quite  of  a  piece  with 
their  putting  their  treasure  where  it  couldn't  be  got  at 
without  a  diving-bell. 

Behind  the  altar  the  niche  was  cut  into  the  cliff  so 
far  that  the  depths  of  it  in  the  waning  daylight  were 
dusky  with  heavy  shadows ;  indeed,  so  dense  were 
these  that  Young  came  near  to  breaking  his  bones  by 
falling  into  a  little  hole  in  the  floor,  that  was  the  less 
easily  seen  because  it  was  hidden  behind  a  jutting 
mass  of  rock.  But  he  caught  the  rock  in  time  to  save 
himself  from  falling,  and  eagerly  struck  a  wax-match 
that  he  might  see  if  here  were  a  passage-way  for  us. 
Descending  into  the  rock  was  a  stair- way,  the  steps 
whereof  were  smoothed  as  though  many  feet  had  trod 
den  them;  and  down  these  steps  he  promptly  went, 
holding  the  lighted  match  before  him — these  Mexican 
wax-matches  are  as  good  as  tapers — and  having  with 
him  the  full  box  of  matches  should  further  light  be 
required.  A  minute  later  we  heard  his  voice  calling 
to  us,  but  where  it  came  from  we  could  not  tell — for 
he  had  descended  into  the  rock  below  us,  and  the 


IN   THE    VALLEY    OF    DEATH.  145 

sound  that  we  heard  seemed  to  come  from  the  air 
above.  While  we  listened  we  saw  the  gleam  of  the 
light  in  the  darkness  below,  and  then  he  came  up  the 
stair  laughing. 

"  Well,  that's  just  th'  boss  trick,"  he  said.  "  I  guess 
th'  old  priests  who  used  t'  run  this  place  would  be 
everlastin'ly  down  on  me  if  they  knew  that  I'd  tum 
bled  to  it.  There's  a  hole  right  up  into  th'  idol  an* 
room  inside  of  him  for  half  a  dozen  men,  an'  there's 
a  crack  in  his  head  that  you  can  see  out  through  while 
you're  lettin'  off  prophecies  an'  -that  sort  o'  thing. 
Why,  if  you  had  a  crowd  t'  work  with  who  really  be 
lieved  in  Jack  Mullins,  you  could  set  'em  up  for  almost 
anything  with  a  rig  like  that !" 

But  this  curious  discovery,  in  which  Fray  Antonio 
and  I  were  deeply  interested,  did  not  forward  our  im 
mediate  purpose,  which  was  to  find  a  way  out  of  the 
valley.  We  still  cherished  a  faint  hope,  indeed,  that 
we  might  find  the  King's  symbol  with  the  arrow  point 
ing  the  way  onward,  and  so  be  assured  that  the  city 
buried  in  the  depths  of  the  lake  was  not  the  city  of 
which  we  were  in  search.  But  in  any  event  the  need 
for  getting  out  of  the  valley  pressed  upon  us  ;  and 
that  we  might  accomplish  our  deliverance  from  this 
shut-in  place,  we  examined  closely  the  whole  circuit 
of  the  cliffs  at  the  western  end.  Not  an  inch  of  this 
great  expanse  of  rock,  for  as  far  up  the  wall  as  our 
eyes  could  see  clearly,  escaped  our  attentive  observa 
tion  ;  yet  nowhere  was  there,  even  by  bold  climbing,  a 
place  where  the  cliff  might  be  scaled,  still  less  an  open 
path.  And  so,  having  walked  slowly  along  the  bottom 
10 


146  THE    AZTEC   TREASUEE-HOTJSE. 

of  the  cliffs  to  the  edge  of  the  lake  on  the  north,  and 
there  turned  upon  our  steps  and  come  slowly  back 
again  to  where  we  started  from,  and  having  made  a 
like  double  journey  of  inspection  to  and  from  the  edge 
of  the  lake  to  the  south,  we  came  at  last  to  our  first 
point  of  departure,  and  rested  before  the  statue  of 
Chac-Mool,  disconsolate. 

One  discovery  we  had  made  in  the  course  of  our  ex 
plorations  which  enabled  us  to  understand  how  the 
fate  that  had  overtaken  the  drowned  city  had  fallen 
upon  it.  Close  by  the  northern  border  of  the  valley 
we  saw,  high  up  above  us,  a  vast  rift  more  than  a  thou 
sand  feet  wide  in  the  face  of  the  cliff ;  and  below  this 
the  ground  was  torn  into  a  deep  wild  channel,  and 
everywhere  huge  fragments  of  rock  were  scattered 
over  the  ground.  Here  it  was,  then,  that  the  water 
had  poured  in — bursting  forth  from  a  lake  above — by 
which  the  city  at  one  stroke  had  been  overwhelmed. 
Some  little  notice,  by  the  mighty  roaring  that  must 
have  accompanied  so  great  a  crash  of  rocks  and  so  vast 
a  rush  of  water,  the  dwellers  in  the  city  must  have 
had ;  and  the  gleam  of  the  pouring  waters  would  have 
shown  them  the  nature  of  the  ruin  that  was  upon 
them.  There  would  have  been  time,  before  the  water 
was  waist-deep  in  the  city  streets,  for  them  to  make 
their  way  to  the  high  mound  on  which  their  temple 
stood ;  and  in  the  appalling  horror  of  it  all  they  might 
have  clamored  to  their  priests  that  a  victim  should  be 
sacrificed  to  stay  this  terrible  outburst  of  anger  on 
the  part  of  their  gods.  But  it  was  more  than  likely 
that  before  the  sacrifice  could  be  completed  they  all — 


IN   THE    VALLEY    OF    DEATH.  147 

people,  priests,  and  lie  who  was  to  be  sacrificed — per 
ished  together  beneath  the  flood. 

"  Why,"  said  Young,  "  th'  Mill  River  disaster  wasn't 
anything  to  it,  an'  that  was  pretty  bad.  I  was  run- 
nin'  th'  way -freight  on  th'  Old  Colony  road  when 
that  happened,  an'  I  took  a  day  off  an'  went  up  an' 
had  a  look  at  it.  But  this  just  lays  that  little  horror 
out  cold.  It's  as  big  as  lettin'  loose  on  Boston  the 
whole  of  Massachusetts  Bay." 

That  we  should  be  prisoners  in  a  place  where  death 
had  wrought  so  swiftly  such  tremendous  havoc  was 
quite  enough  to  fill  our  souls  with  a  brooding  melan 
choly.  But  in  addition  to  the  sombre  thoughts  which 
thus  were  forced  upon  us,  bred  of  sorrow  for  the  thou 
sands  who  had  here  untimely  perished,  the  gloomy 
dread  of  a  more  practical  sort  assailed  us  that  we  also 
in  a  little  while  would  join  the  silent  company  of  the 
thousands  who  had  died  here  in  a  long  past  time. 
And  the  death  that  seemed  to  be  in  store  for  us  was 
less  merciful  than  that  which  had  come  to  them. 
Theirs  had  been  a  short  struggle,  and  then  a  gentle 
ending  as  the  wTaters  closed  over  them.  But  our  end 
ing  was  like  to  be  a  lingering  one  and  miserable — by 
starvation. 

With  the  loss  of  our  mules  and  horses  we  had  been 
compelled  to  leave  behind  us  the  greater  portion  of  our 
stores ;  and  for  our  protection  against  savages,  and  in 
the  belief  that  in  the  mountains  we  should  meet  with 
an  abundance  of  game,  we  had  left  almost  all  of  our 
provisions,  and  made  our  lading  mainly  of  ammunition 
and  arms,  But  in  this  valley,  so  smiling  and  so  beau- 


148  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

tif ul,  there  was  no  live  thing  except  ourselves.  Not 
a  beast,  not  a  bird  had  we  seen  since  we  entered  it ; 
and  in  the  lake,  as  we  found  presently,  there  were  no 
fish ;  the  only  sign  that  animal  life  ever  had  existed 
here  was  that  dried  and  withered  remnant  of  a  woman 
that  we  had  found  in  the  deserted  house,  and  the  bones 
which  we  had  seen  gleaming  below  us  in  the  lake. 
This  was,  in  truth,  as  we  came  thus  to  call  it,  the  Val 
ley  of  Death. 

While  we  worked  at  building  the  raft  we  had  not 
thought  to  be  sparing  in  our  eating — for  building  that 
raft  was  hungry  work  —  and  now  that  consideration 
of  the  matter  was  forced  upon  us,  we  found  that  we 
had  with  us  food  barely  sufficient  for  three  days.  We 
could,  of  course,  eat  El  Sabio — though  such  was  our 
feeling  towards  that  excellent  animal  that  eating  him 
would  be  almost  like  eating  one  of  ourselves  ;  and 
Pablo,  we  knew,  would  regard  eating  this  dear  friend 
of  his  as  neither  more  nor  less  than  sheer  cannibalism. 
And  even  if  we  did  eat  El  Sabio,  the  meat  of  his  little 
body  would  but  prolong  our  lives  for  a  week,  or  pos 
sibly  for  two  weeks  more.  And  what  then? 

Had  there  been  room  in  our  souls  for  yet  more  sor 
row,  we  could  have  had  it  in  the  thought  that  in  all 
that  we  had  set  out  to  do  we  had  completely  failed. 
If  this  Valley  of  Death  were  indeed  the  place  that  we 
had  been  seeking,  little  good  came  to  us  from  find 
ing  it.  Of  the  souls  which  Fray  Antonio  had  come 
forth  to  save,  here  there  were  none.  Of  archaeological 
discovery,  truly,  I  had  something  to  make  me  glad ; 
yet  little  compared  to  what  was  hidden  beneath  the 


IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  DEATH.  149 

waters ;  and  even  this  little,  since  knowledge  of  what 
I  had  found  soon  must  die  with  me,  was  of  no  avail. 
As  for  Rayburn  and  Young,  the  treasure  which  they 
sought  might  or  might  not  be  near  at  hand ;  but  they 
certainly  could  no  more  come  at  it  than,  were  it  heaped 
up  before  them,  they  could  carry  it  away.  And  most 
of  all  was  my  heart  troubled  by  the  fate  that  was  like 
to  overtake  Pablo  because  of  his  love  for  me.  Bitter 
ly  I  blamed  myself  for  permitting  the  boy  to  come 
with  me ;  for  I  should  have  foreseen  that  a  hundred 
chances  might  intervene  to  render  impossible  my  in 
tention  to  give  him  his  free  choice  to  go  or  to  stay 
when  the  decisive  turning-point  in  our  adventure  came. 
In  point  of  fact,  one  of  these  chances  had  intervened; 
and  the  attack  upon  us  that  the  Indians  had  made, 
and  the  closing  of  the  passage  in  the  rock  behind  us 
that  rendered  return  impossible,  had  forced  him  to  re 
main  with  us  without  voice  of  his  own  in  the  matter; 
and  now  would  bring  him,  as  it  would  bring  the  rest 
of  us,  to  the  most  horrible  death  of  which  a  man  can 
die. 

Night  was  falling  as  we  ended  our  search  along  the 
cliffs  for  a  way  of  escape,  and  found  none,  and  so  came 
again  in  front  of  the  great  idol — where  our  packs  had 
been  left  heaped  up,  and  where  the  Wise  One,  happily 
unmindful  of  the  fate  that  might  soon  be  in  store  for 
him,  was  energetically  cropping  the  rich  grass.  We 
built  a  fire,  for  the  air  in  that  deep  valley,  mingling 
with  the  mists  rising  from  the  lake,  was  damp  and 
chill ;  and  beside  the  fire  we  made  our  evening  meal. 
There  was  no  good  in  talking  about  what  was  so  ap- 


150  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

parent  to  all  of  us  ;  but  Young,  wlto  was  our  cook, 
showed  his  appreciation  of  the  situation  practically  by 
serving  only  half  rations  and  by  making  our  coffee 
very  thin  and  poor. 

Silently  we  ate  our  short  allowance  of  food;  and 
thereafter  we  smoked  our  pipes  with  but  little  talk  for 
seasoning,  and  that  little  of  a  melancholy  sort.  Of  our 
own  plight  we  did  not  speak  at  all,  but  in  what  we 
said  there  was  constantly  a  reflection  of  the  bitter 
sorrow  with  which  all  our  hearts  were  charged.  I 
remember  that  Young,  who  truly  was  as  merry  a  man 
naturally  as  ever  I  knew,  told  us  that  night  only  of 
dreadful  railroad  accidents — of  wrecks  in  which  men 
lay  crushed  among  the  heaped -up  cars,  shrieking  with 
the  agony  of  their  hurts  ;  and  then  shrieking  with 
dread,  and  with  yet  greater  pain  as  the  fire  that  seized 
upon  the  ruin  around  them  came  nearer  and  nearer 
until  they  fairly  were  roasted  alive.  And  Rayburn 
told  of  a  prospecting  party  besieged  by  Indians  upon 
a  mountain  peak  in  Colorado ;  how,  one  by  one,  they 
slowly  died  in  a  raving  horror  of  thirst  until  one  man 
alone  was  left ;  and  how  this  one  man  prolonged  his 
life  until  rescue  came  by  drinking  the  blood  of  his  own 
body,  and  yet  died  in  raging  madness  almost  at  the 
moment  that  he  was  saved. 

For  myself,  I  had  nothing  to  add  to  these  horrors ; 
yet  such  was  my  frame  of  mind  that  I  found  a  certain 
bitter  gladness  in  listening  to  the  telling  of  them,  and 
in  tracing  between  them  and  our  own  case  the  ghastly 
parallel.  In  our  talk,  which  went  on  in  English,  Fray 
Antonio  took  no  part;  but  he  could  follow  well  enough 


IN    THE    VALLEY    OF    DEATH.  151 

the  meaning  of  it  in  our  tones.  On  his  face  was  an 
expression  of  tender  melancholy  that  seemed  to  me  to 
tell  of  sorrow  for  us  rather  than  of  dread  of  what  might 
be  in  store  for  himself ;  and  that  this  truly  was  his 
mood  was  shown  when  the  others  paused,  sated  and 
appalled  by  the  horrors  which  they  had  conjured  up, 
and  he  spoke  at  last. 

It  was  not  a  sermon  that  Fray  Antonio  gave  us  ;  but 
out  of  the  abundant  store  of  faith  by  which  he  himself 
was  sustained  he  strove  to  comfort  us  with  thoughts 
of  better  things  than  life  can  give.  And  with  the 
promise  of  hope  that  he  held  out  to  us  with  the  sol 
emn  authority  that  was  vested  in  him  by  reason  of  the 
service  to  which  he  was  vowed,  he  mingled  a  certain 
yearning  for  us,  very  moving,  that  came  of  the  love 
and  the  tender  gentleness  that  were  in  his  own  heart. 
And  yet,  though  he  knew  that,  excepting  Pablo,  we  all 
were  heretics  according  to  his  own  creed,  there  was 
no  word  of  doctrine  in  all  of  his  discourse.  Rather 
was  what  he  said  a  simple  setting  forth  of  that  primi 
tive  Christianity  which  has  its  beginning  and  its  end 
ing  in  a  simple  faith  in  an  all-pervading,  all-protecting 
love.  And  of  this  love,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  he  himself 
was  the  human  embodiment.  Looking  in  his  gentle 
face,  which  yet  had  such  high  courage,  such  noble  res 
olution  in  it,  I  felt  that  in  him  the  spirit  of  the  saints 
and  martyrs  of  long  past  ages  lived  again. 

With  our  souls  soothed  and  strengthened  by  what 
Fray  Antonio  had  spoken  to  us,  we  lay  down  at  last  to 
sleep ;  yet  was  it  impossible  for  us  to  drive  out  from 
our  hearts  that  natural  sadness  which  men  must  feel 


152  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

who  know  that  they  have  failed  in  a  strong  effort  to 
accomplish  a  project  very  dear  to  them,  and  who  know 
also  that  they  are  standing  upon  the  very  threshold  of 
a  most  tormenting  death. 


XIII. 

UP   THE    CHAC-MOOL    STAIR. 

WE  awoke  the  next  morning  at  the  very  moment 
that  the  sun  rose  above  the  mountain  peaks  to  the 
eastward;  and  our  waking  was  due  in  part  to  the  sun 
shine  striking  upon  our  faces,  but  more  to  the  prodig 
ious  braying,  that  echoed  thunderously  from  the  cliffs 
around  us,  with  which  El  Sabio  welcomed  the  advent 
of  the  god  of  day. 

"It  is  a  good  sign,  senor,"  said  Pablo,  "when  El 
Sabio  brays  thus  nobly  at  sunrise.  He  does  not  do  it 
often,  but  when  he  does  I  know  beyond  a  doubt  that  I 
am  to  have  a  lucky  day." 

"An*  I  must  say,"  Young  struck  in,  "that  for  a 
man  who  expects  t'  have  t'  eat  his  boots  in  th'  course 
of  a  day  or  two  I'm  feelin'  this  mornin'  most  uncom 
monly  chipper  myself.  For  one  thing,  I  mean  t'  have 
another  look  around  that  idol.  I'm  not  at  all  sure  that 
he's  not  th'  tippin'-up  kind.  Maybe  we  didn't  put 
enough  weight  on  him  yesterday  ;  or  he  may  do  his 
tippin'  up  from  th'  other  end.  Anyhow,  I'm  goin' 
t'  have  another  whack  at  him  as  soon  as  I've  eat  my 
breakfast;  an'  that's  a  performance  that  won't  take 


UP    THE    CHAC-MOOL    STATE.  153 

long  t'  get  through  with,  considerin'  how  thunderin' 
little  there  is  t'  eat." 

Truly,  the  eating  of  our  breakfast  did  not  consume 
much  time ;  and,  so  short  did  Young  make  our  rations, 
I  am  not  sure  that  we  were  not  hungrier  at  the  end  of 
it  than  we  were  at  its  beginning.  When  we  finished, 
the  sun  was  still  low  in  the  east;  and  the  bright  rays 
struck  full  upon  the  statue  of  Chac-Mool,  on  the  great 
stone  altar,  and  into  the  depths  of  the  niche  that  had 
been  hollowed  behind  it  in  the  face  of  the  cliff.  We 
observed  that  the  idol  was  so  placed  that  the  very  first 
rays  of  the  sun,  coming  through  a  cleft  between  two 
great  peaks  to  the  eastward,  shone  brightly  upon  it, 
while  yet  all  the  rest  of  the  valley  save  the  cliff  above 
the  niche  remained  in  shade. 

With  the  strong  sunlight  deeply  penetrating  it,  the 
recess  behind  the  altar  no  longer  was  filled  with  the 
black  shadows  that  had  obscured  it  on  the  previous 
afternoon  ;  and  even  the  hole  into  which  Young  so 
nearly  had  fallen  was  plainly  visible.  Taking  advan 
tage  of  the  better  light,  the  lost-freight  agent — who 
certainly  had  found  a  fitting  berth  in  that  department 
of  railway  service,  for  such  a  man  for  hunting  for 
things,  and  for  finding  them,  I  never  came  across — 
made  a  more  careful  examination  of  the  deeper  portion 
of  the  recess,  and  presently  he  gave  a  shout  that  told 
of  a  discovery. 

As  we  gathered  around  him  he  pointed  in  great  ex 
citement  to  a  row  of  metal  pegs,  which  were  fixed  in 
the  rock  one  above  the  other,  diagonally ;  and  then  to 
the  point  in  the  roof  of  the  recess  towards  which  these 


154  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

pegs  tended.  Even  with  the  strong  light  that  now  aid 
ed  us  it  was  some  time  before  I  could  make  out  among 
the  black  shadows  of  the  roof  a  small  opening;  but  the 
longer  that  I  looked  at  it  the  more  distinct  it  grew. 

"  We've  struck  th'  trail  once  more,"  Young  cried. 
"We've  struck  it  sure.  It  don't  look  promisin',  but 
here  it  is — for  if  this  ain't  th'  King's  symbol  carved 
right  by  th'  first  of  these  pegs,  then  you're  all  at  liber 
ty  t'  kick  me  right  smack  over  th'  top  of  that  idol  for 
ad nfool!  Hurrah!" 

Pablo  could  not  understand  what  Young  was  say 
ing,  but  it  was  easy  to  perceive  from  his  gestures  the 
nature  of  the  happy  discovery  that  he  had  made.  In 
a  tone  in  which  deference  and  triumph  were  curiously 
blended,  Pablo  said  to  me:  "  Did  I  not  tell  you,  senor, 
that  a  good  thing  always  happens  when  El  Sabio  brays 
at  the  rising  sun  ?" 

Before  Pablo  had  ended  this  short  but  exultant 
deliverance,  Young  was  half-way  up  to  the  roof  of 
the  cave,  treading  gingerly  upon  the  metal  bolts  and 
testing  each  one  before  he  trusted  his  weight  to  it. 
In  a  couple  of  minutes  he  reached  the  roof  and  dis 
appeared  through  the  hole ;  and  almost  instantly  he 
called  down  to  us  :  "  We're  solid  —  here's  a  regular 
staircase.  Come  along!" 

We  followed  him  promptly  enough ;  while  our 
hearts  thrilled,  and  all  our  bodies  trembled,  with  the 
gladness  that  possessed  us  as  we  found  this  way  open 
ing  to  us  from  the  valley  wherein  we  had  thought 
that  surely  we  must  die.  In  a  little  chamber,  cut  in 
the  rock  above  the  opening  into  which  the  ladder  of 


UP   THE    CHAC-MOOL   STAIR.  155 

bolts  led  us,  Young  was  waiting  for  us;  and  from  this 
chamber  a  spiral  stair-way  ascended  that  was  dimly 
lighted  by  crevices  cut  from  it  out  to  the  face  of  the 
cliff.  With  Young  leading  us,  up  this  we  went ;  at 
first  rapidly,  but,  later,  slowly  and  wearily,  for  it 
seemed  as  though  the  stair  would  never  end.  Yet 
though  our  bodies  were  heavy  our  spirits  were  very 
light ;  for  we  knew  by  the  wearisome  length  of  it  that 
the  stair  must  lead  to  the  very  top  of  the  towering 
cliffs  by  which  we  had  believed  ourselves  to  be  irrev 
ocably  shut  in.  And  at  last  there  was  a  gleaming  of 
light  above  us  ;  and  this  grew  stronger  and  stronger 
until  we  came  out  with  a  shout  of  joy  into  the  glad 
sunlight — and  saw  far  below  us  the  valley  that  we 
once  more  thought  beautiful,  now  that  it  no  longer 
held  us  fast. 

In  the  depth  below  us  we  could  discern  El  Sabio, 
looking  no  bigger  then  a  rabbit ;  and  he  must  have 
caught  the  sound  of  our  shouting  with  those  long  ears 
of  his,  for  there  came  up  to  us  faintly  from  him  an  an 
swering  bray. 

"  It's  pretty  hard  lines  on  that  jackass,"  said  Young, 
"leaving  him  behind  down  there.  But  he  might  be 
left  in  a  worse  place,  after  all." 

I  could  perceive  that  Pablo  was  stirred  by  uneasy 
thoughts  of  the  separation  that  now  so  clearly  must 
take  place  between  him  and  his  dear  friend ;  and  he 
looked  wistfully  along  the  path  across  the  mountain  to 
the  westward — cut  and  smoothed  so  that  it  was  an 
easy  path  to  go  on — and  evidently  thought  how  simple 
a  matter  it  would  be  for  El  Sabio  to  travel  on  with 


156  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

us  if  only  once  he  were  up  the  stair.  But  he  did  not 
speak,  and  I  hoped  that  he  was  nerving  himself  to  bear 
manfully  this  sore  trial.  For  the  rest  of  us,  we  had 
but  one  thought :  to  get  our  packs  up  the  stair-way 
as  quickly  as  possible — and  at  its  quickest  this  work 
would  be  slowly  and  painfully  done  —  and  then  once 
more  go  forward.  Just  as  we  turned  to  descend  again 
an  eagle  came  sailing  slowly  towards  us  —  evidently 
without  fear  of  us — and  Rayburn  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  bring  him  down  with  a  pistol-shot.  We  tossed  him 
over  the  edge  of  the  cliff ;  and  a  famous  breakfast  we 
made  on  him  when  we  returned  into  the  valley  again. 
I  can't  say  that  I  would  have  much  stomach  for  so 
dirty  a  bird  now,  but  I  certainly  did  think  that  eagle 
most  delicious  eating  then. 

The  hearty  meal  that  we  made  on  him  strengthened 
us  mightily,  and  we  went  to  work  with  a  will  at  get 
ting  our  traps  up  the  stair.  With  our  pack-ropes  we 
hauled  the  various  articles  first  into  the  little  room 
at  the  stair-foot,  and  then  toilsomely  carried  them  to 
the  heights  above.  Saving  only  that  this  work  did 
not  blister  my  hands,  it  was  worse  than  the  building  of 
the  raft  had  been;  and  all  of  us,  using  in  climbing  and 
in  descending  the  stair  certain  muscles  which  normally 
are  not  brought  often  into  play,  found  our  legs  so  stiff 
and  sore  for  the  next  day  or  two  that  walking  gave  us 
very  lively  pain. 

It  was  as  this  heavy  work  went  slowly  forward  that 
Pablo  said  to  me,  speaking  in  an  insinuating  and  dep 
recating  tone :  "  Up  a  stair  such  as  this  is,  senor,  the 
Wise  One  would  bound  like  a  deer." 


UP   THE    CHAC-MOOL    STAIB.  157 

I  did  not  call  in  question  Pablo's  simile,  for  I  knew 
that  the  boy's  heart  must  be  very  sad.  Laying  my 
hand  kindly  upon  his  shoulder,  I  answered  in  a  way  to 
show  that  I  was  truly  sorry  for  him  :  "  The  Wise  One 
will  lead  a  happy  life,  Pablo,  in  this  beautiful  valley — 
where  nothing  can  do  him  harm,  and  where  he  will 
have  an  abundance  of  water  and  of  rich  fresh  grass. 
Up  the  stair  no  doubt  he  could  climb,  for  he  knows 
wonderfully  well  how  to  use  those  dainty  little  feet  of 
his  ;  but  even  the  Wise  One  could  not  climb  up  the 
ladder  of  metal  bolts.  Therefore  must  thou  strengthen 
thy  heart  against  the  bitterness  of  this  parting  from 
him;  for  even  if  thou  wouldst  stay  behind  with  him  it 
is  not  possible — for  thou  canst  not  live,  like  the  Wise 
One,  on  water  and  grass." 

"  But  he  is  so  little  and  so  light  an  ass,  seiior,"  Pablo 
urged,  "  that  surely,  all  of  us  pulling  together,  we  could 
pull  him  up  by  the  ropes,  even  as  the  other  things  have 
been  pulled  up ;  surely,  surely,  seiior,  that  would  be  an 
easy  thing  for  four  men  to  do — and  I  also  can  pull  at 
the  ropes,  senor,  almost  as  well  as  any  man." 

It  did  not  seem  to  me  that  even  all  of  us  pulling  to 
gether  could  sway  El  Sabio  up  a  hundred  feet  through 
the  air;  but  Pablo  was  so  pitiful  in  his  entreaties,  and 
seemed  so  resolutely  bent  upon  remaining  behind  in 
the  valley  and  dying  there  with  his  dear  friend  rather 
than  go  on  without  him,  that  I  opened  the  matter  to 
Rayburn  and  joined  my  plea  to  Pablo's  that  this  curi 
ous  effort  should  be  made.  And  in  addition  to  the 
sentimental  reason  for  taking  the  ass  with  us,  I  point 
ed  out  to  Rayburn — as,  indeed,  he  understood  without 


158  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

my  telling  him  —  how  practically  valuable  El  Sabio 
was  to  us  in  helping  us  to  bear  our  heavy  loads.  Ray- 
burn  thought  with  me  that  the  dead  lift  of  so  consid 
erable  a  weight  to  such  a  height,  without  tackle  of 
any  sort  to  help  us,  was  impossible.  But  Young,  who 
had  an  inventive  strain  in  his  composition,  was  of  the 
opinion  that  he  could  set  up  such  rough  tackle  as 
would  answer  our  purpose ;  upon  understanding  which, 
Pablo  at  once  embraced  El  Sabio  and  danced  for  joy. 

Young  was,  I  think,  the  handiest  man  I  ever  knew. 
He  had  a  natural  genius  for  mechanics ;  and  in  the 
many  years  of  his  railroad  life  he  had  gained  a  knowl 
edge  of  all  manner  of  expedients  by  which  the  work 
of  complicated  machinery  could  be  accomplished  by 
very  simple  means.  "  When  you  have  a  freight  smash- 
up  right  in  the  middle  of  the  section,"  he  said,  "  with 
nobody  to  help  you  inside  of  forty  miles,  and  the  ex 
press  due  to  come  bouncing  down  on  you  inside  of 
two  hours,  you've  just  got  to  get  things  out  of  the 
way  whether  you've  got  anything  to  do  it  with  or  not. 
If  I  had  the  equipment  of  a  first-class  freight-cab  here 
I'd  yank  that  burro  up  inside  of  twenty  minutes ;  and 
if  I  don't  do  it,  anyway,  inside  of  two  hours  I'll  prom 
ise  to  eat  him." 

I  did  not  translate  the  whole  of  this  speech  to  Pab 
lo,  for  talk  even  in  fun  about  eating  El  Sabio  was 
rather  a  delicate  matter,  considering  how  close  a  shave 
that  worthy  animal  had  had  to  being  eaten  in  dead 
earnest;  but  I  did  tell  him  that  the  Senor  Young  felt 
sure  that  he  could  swing  El  Sabio  up  through  the  air 
to  where  the  stair  began.  And  with  Pablo — who  also 


UP   THE    CHAC-MOOL    STATE.  159 

could  use  his  hands  well  —  most  willingly  helping, 
Young  contrived  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  to  make 
a  rough  windlass,  that  was  effective  enough  for  the 
work  to  be  done  with  it,  and  to  pull  it  up  bit  by  bit 
into  the  chamber  in  the  rock  and  there  fit  it  together 
over  the  hole.  El  Sabio,  being  brought  into  the  recess 
behind  the  idol,  regarded  us  all  with  a  doubting  ex 
pression  that  even  Pablo's  repeated  assurances  that  we 
meant  well  by  him  could  not  change  into  a  look  of 
trustfulness.  Pablo  declared,  however,  that  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  the  Wise  One  knew  that  we  all  were 
his  friends,  and  that  even  though  we  should  hurt  him 
a  little  he  would  understand  that  it  was  for  his  good. 
And  the  conduct  of  the  ass  during  the  exceedingly 
bad  half -hour  that  he  then  went  through  seemed  fully 
to  bear  out  Pablo's  words.  Around  his  small  body, 
with  stays  running  forward  around  his  neck  and  aft  to 
liis  tail,  we  rigged  looped  ropes — which  ropes  were 
gathered  together  above  his  back  and  there  made  fast 
to  the  line  that  was  pendent  from  the  windlass  above. 
From  time  to  time,  as  this  operation  was  going  for 
ward,  El  Sabio  turned  his  head  upon  one  shoulder  or 
the  other  and  gazed  with  a  wistful  expression  at  what 
we  were  doing  to  him  ;  and  the  slow  shake  that  he 
gave  his  head,  whereby  his  great  ears  were  set  to  wag 
ging  mournfully,  as  he  finished  each  of  these  inspec 
tions,  betrayed  the  grave  wonder  that  was  within  him  as 
to  what  it  all  could  mean,  together  with  a  not  unnatu 
ral  apprehension  of  what  might  be  its  ultimate  outcome. 
By  a  good  chance,  the  effect  upon  the  Wise  One  of 
finding  the  solid  earth  drop  suddenly  from  beneath  his 


160  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

feet — when  at  last  all  was  in  readiness,  and  Young  and 
Rayburn  began  to  hoist  away  at  the  windlass — was  to 
render  him  quite  rigid  with  terror ;  and  there  was  a 
most  agonized  look  upon  his  face  as  he  went  sailing  up 
through  the  air.  Pablo,  standing  below  with  me,  that 
we  might  steady  the  ass  with  a  guy-rope  during  his 
ascent,  addressed  to  him  all  manner  of  tender  and  com 
forting  words ;  but  for  once  the  Wise  One  seemed  to 
be  insensible  to  his  master's  voice.  Neither  with  his 
eyes  nor  his  ears  did  he  respond;  and  he  well  enough 
might  have  been  taken  for  a  dead  ass  going  heaven 
ward,  but  for  the  sharp  twitchings  of  his  tail.  And 
when  at  last  he  was  safely  within  the  upper  chamber, 
he  fairly  fell  down  upon  the  rocky  floor  of  it  in  sheer 
exhaustion  begot  of  fright.  It  was  not  until  we  had 
passed  up  a  bucket  of  water  to  him,  whereof  he  drank 
the  very  last  drop,  and  had  been  soothed  by  Pablo's 
fondling  of  him  and  by  Pablo's  gentle  words,  that  his 
broken  spirit  revived.  And  so  limp  and  weak  was  he 
that  it  was  a  long  while  before  we  could  in  conscience 
urge  him  to  ascend  the  stair.  When  at  last  he  set 
himself  to  this  undertaking,  he  was  far  from  accom 
plishing  it  in  the  bounding  and  deer-like  manner  that 
Pablo  had  promised  for  him ;  but  he  certainly  did  at 
last  get  to  the  top — which  was  all  that  was  required 
of  him — and  there  drank  gratefully  the  bucketful  of 
water  that  Pablo  had  carried  up  that  great  height  for 
his  comforting  when  his  toilsome  climbing  should  end. 
And  Pablo  went  down  into  the  valley  once  more  that 
night  in  order  to  bring  back  to  his  friend  a  hearty  sup 
per  of  rich  grass. 


THE    HANGING    CHAIN.  161 

By  the  time  that  all  this  hard  work  was  accom 
plished  the  day  was  nearly  at  an  end;  and  even  had 
there  been  light  for  us  to  see  our  way  by  we  were  too 
tired  to  go  on  —  for  every  bone  and  muscle  in  our 
bodies  was  weary  and  sore.  Therefore  we  made  our 
camp  for  the  night  on  the  flat  expanse  of  rock  where 
the  stair  ended ;  and  we  were  thankful  that  enough  of 
the  eagle  remained  to  us  for  our  supper — and,  indeed, 
we  made  our  breakfast  on  him  also,  for  he  was  a  pro 
digiously  large  bird.  Very  different  were  our  feelings 
as  we  wrapped  ourselves  in  our  blankets  and  settled 
ourselves  to  sleep  on  that  open  mountain- top  —  with 
the  path  clear  before  us,  and  with  the  cheering  hope 
in  our  hearts  that  among  the  mountains  we  should  find 
a  plenty  of  wild  creatures  suitable  for  food — from  the 
dull  despairing  languor  that  had  possessed  us  as  we 
sank  to  sleep  the  night  before.  And  with  our  joy  was 
also  a  reverent  thankfulness — that  was  more  strongly 
stimulated  by  certain  words  which  Fray  Antonio  spoke 
ere  we  lay  down  to  rest — that  our  deliverance  was  ac 
complished  from  that  death- stricken  valley  wherein  we 
ourselves  so  surely  had  expected  that  we  must  die. 


XIV. 

THE    HANGING   CHAIN. 


BY  the  winding  way  which  we  followed  along  the 
mountain-top  (and  that  this  was  the  way  we  wished  to 
follow  the  King's  symbol  and  the  pointing  arrow  plainly 
11 


162  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

showed),  we  came  presently  close  beside  the  rift  in 
the  cliffs  through  which  the  waters  of  the  upper  lake 
had  been  discharged  upon  the  city  in  the  valley  below 
and  so  had  buried  it.  And  here  we  made  a  very  sur 
prising  discovery — which  was  no  less  than  that  the 
great  rift  in  the  rocks  through  which  the  water  had 
been  let  loose  was  not,  as  we  had  supposed,  the  result 
of  some  fierce  convulsion  of  nature,  but  very  plainly 
was  the  fiercer  work  of  man.  Along  the  face  of  the 
opening  whence  the  water  had  poured  forth  the  rock 
was  grooved,  showing  that  drill-holes  had  been  made, 
close  together,  from  the  edge  of  the  cliff  backward  to 
the  lake  that  once  had  filled  all  the  valley  now  lying 
bare  and  empty  before  us ;  and  with  the  field-glass  we 
could  see  that  there  was  a  like  channelling  of  the  rock 
upon  the  farther  side  of  the  break.  And  all  doubt  in 
our  minds  in  regard  to  this  matter  was  removed  by 
our  finding  a  vastly  long  drill — made  of  the  bright, 
hard  metal  that  we  now  were  familiar  with,  yet  could 
not  at  all  understand  its  composition — lying  close  be 
side  the  chasm  upon  the  bare  rock. 

"  There  has  been  the  devil's  own  work  here !"  said 
Rayburn,  as  he  fully  took  in  this  extraordinary  situ 
ation.  "Whoever  did  this  must  have  spent  months 
over  it,  perhaps  years,  working  with  such  tools  as 
these.  They  evidently  went  at  it  systematically,  with 
the  deliberate  intention  of  drowning  the  whole  crowd 
down  below.  From  an  engineering  stand-point  I  must 
say  that  it's  a  good  piece  of  work.  See  how  cleverly 
they've  picked  out  this  particular  spot,  where  the  wall 
of  rock  went  down  almost  perpendicularly  into  the 


THE   HANGING   CHAIN,  168 

lake,  and  so  got  the  full  value  of  the  thrust  of  the  wa 
ter  when  their  cuts  were  finished.  If  I'm  not  mistaken, 
there  was  a  third  line  of  drill-holes  sunk  in  the  middle 
of  the  mass  that  they  meant  to  cut  loose.  That's  the 
way  I  should  have  done  it :  then  there  would  have 
been  a  little  giving  in  the  centre  that  would  have 
helped  to  loosen  the  sides.  But  what  a  lot  of  incar 
nate  devils  they  must  have  been  to  go  at  such  a  job!' 

Truly,  there  was  something  chilling  to  the  blood  in 
the  thought  of  the  slow  labor  of  them  who  had  toiled 
here,  day  after  day  and  month  after  month,  until  their 
ghastly  purpose  was  accomplished,  and  they  had  slain 
a  whole  city  without  striking  a  single  honest  blow. 
Such  vengeance  upon  an  enemy  as  here  was  taken 
never  had  its  equal  for  cold,  malignant  cruelty  since 
the  world  began.  Down  in  the  valley  below  we  had 
seen  gleaming  beneath  the  calm  surface  of  the  lake 
the  bones  of  the  thousands  who  had  perished  when 
this  diabolical  work  was  completed,  and  the  waters 
bounded  forth,  shining  and  sparkling  in  the  sunlight, 
on  their  mission  of  death.  And  whoever  let  them 
loose  must  have  stood  just  where  we  now  were  stand 
ing;  and  at  sight  of  what  came  of  their  long  labor 
there  must  have  been  such  joy  as  no  hell  could  ade 
quately  punish  in  their  black  hearts. 

Our  bodies  shuddered  as  we  turned  and  left  the 
scene  of  this  tremendous  tragedy;  that  was  the  more 
appalling  to  us  because  of  the  profound  mystery  in 
which  was  buried  everything  related  to  it  save  the 
fact  that  it  had  been. 

For  a  long  distance  our  way  went  onward  beside 


164  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

the  bare,  deep  valley  that  had  been  the  basin  of  the 
lake,  and  so  the  thought  of  the  horror  which  had  been 
wrought  so  devilishly  with  its  innocent  waters  lingered 
gloomily  in  our  minds.  Involuntarily  we  associated 
the  unknown  people  of  a  long  past  time  who  had  per 
petrated  this  hideous  wholesale  murder  with  the  peo 
ple  for  whom  we  now  were  searching,  and  an  uncertain 
dread  filled  our  souls  as  to  what  might  be  our  own  fate 
should  we  end  by  finding  what  we  sought.  From  the 
tender  mercies  of  a  race  in  which  stealthy  craft  and 
cold,  malignant  cruelty  evidently  were  such  conspicu 
ous  characteristics,  little  was  to  be  expected.  There 
fore,  it  was  in  a  sombre  mood,  and  with  but  little  talk 
among  us,  that  we  went  forward  upon  our  way. 

The  path  that  we  followed  showed  the  same  care  in 
the  making  of  it  that  we  had  found  in  the  path  leading 
down  from  the  canon  into  the  valley  where  the  drown 
ed  city  was.  Throughout  the  length  of  it,  by  carrying 
it  skilfully  along  the  windings  of  the  mountain-sides, 
an  equable,  easy  grade  was  maintained ;  where  it  led 
across  open  spaces  the  loose  stones  had  been  cleared 
away  and  stood  heaped  along  each  side  of  it ;  where  it 
skirted  precipices  the  solid  rock  had  been  cut  out  in 
order  to  give  a  wider  and  a  surer  foothold ;  and  here 
and  there  in  its  course  crevices  which  traversed  it  were 
bridged  with  great  slabs  of  stone.  Rayburn  was  lost 
in  admiration  of  the  engineering  skill  that  was  shown 
in  its  construction,  and  declared  that  a  very  little  extra 
work  put  on  it  would  fit  it  for  the  laying  of  a  line  of 
rails. 

The  valley  on  our  right,  in  which  the  lake  had  been, 


THE    HANGING    CHAIN.  165 

narrowed  as  we  advanced ;  and  as  the  path  that  we 
followed  had  a  steadily  rising  grade  (according  to 
Rayburn's  estimate,  of  a  trifle  more  than  three  per 
cent.),  the  bottom  of  it  fell  away  rapidly.  As  we 
reached  what  had  been,  as  we  found,  the  foot  of  the 
lake,  we  discovered  fresh  evidence  of  the  enormous 
amount  of  labor  that  had  been  expended  in  order  to 
make  its  waters  an  effective  engine  of  destruction. 
Far  in  the  depths  beneath  us,  extending  across  the 
whole  width  of  the  valley — but  here  the  valley  had 
so  narrowed  that  it  was  less  a  valley  than  a  canon — 
we  saw  a  high  and  vastly  broad  stone  wall.  It  was 
then  that  we  perceived  fully  the  whole  of  the  devil 
ish  design,  and  realized  the  years  that  must  have  been 
given  to  its  execution.  By  the  building  of  the  wall 
the  level  of  the  lake  had  been  raised  fully  three  hun 
dred  feet,  and  so  a  head  of  water  had  been  obtained 
strong  enough  to  thrust  out  the  mass  of  rock  that  had 
been  loosened  by  drilling  through  its  centre  and  at  its 
sides.  It  would  have  been  possible,  also,  for  the  rock 
that  was  to  be  broken  away  to  be  greatly  thinned  by 
quarrying  its  open  face  while  the  water  was  rising 
slowly  after  the  great  dam  was  built.  Clearly,  the 
whole  work  had  been  planned  with  a  calm,  diabolical 
ingenuity  that  assured  with  absolute  certainty  the  ac 
complishment  of  the  horrible  purpose  that  those  who 
labored  at  it  had  in  view.  It  seemed  impossible, 
but  for  the  proof  that  we  here  had  of  it,  that  human 
hearts  could  have  in  them  enough  of  purely  devilish 
cruelty  to  spend  years  in  thus  working  out  to  perfec 
tion  so  hideous  a  vengeance ;  and  to  me  it  seemed  all 


166  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

the  more  dreadful  because  of  the  time  that  had  pass 
ed  since  this  most  evil  deed  was  done.  Centuries  had 
vanished,  and  the  slayers  —  living  out  the  few  years 
of  their  lifetime — had  perished  from  off  the  earth  as 
utterly  as  had  the  slain ;  yet  here  the  whole  proof  of 
the  great  crime  that  had  been  wrought  lived  on  in  en 
during  stone  that  was  like  to  last  until  the  very  end  of 
the  world  should  come.  Thus  had  these  sinners  left 
behind  them,  raised  by  their  own  hands,  a  monument 
telling  of  their  sin ;  which  sin  had  not  even  the  redeem 
ing  quality  of  passionateness,  but  was  slow  and  subtle 
and  cruelly  cold. 

We  were  glad  to  turn  from  sight  of  this  place  and 
press  onward  into  the  canon,  for  such  the  valley  now 
had  become ;  and  we  found  in  the  dark  shadows 
which  enveloped  us  in  this  deep  cleft  between  the 
mountains  a  sombreness  in  keeping  with  the  feelings 
in  our  hearts.  So  high  above  us  towered  the  cliffs 
that  at  their  top  they  seemed  almost  to  meet,  showing 
between  them  only  a  narrow  ribbon  of  bright  blue 
sky,  and  below  us  the  chasm,  went  down  sheer  for  a 
thousand  feet;  a  gloomy  depth  that  our  eyes  could 
not  have  penetrated  had  there  not  gleamed  at  the  bot 
tom  of  it  the  foam  and  sparkle  of  a  little  stream.  Here 
the  path  was  hewn  almost  continuously  out  of  the  solid 
rock ;  and  we  could  see  that  a  like  path  was  cut  in  the 
rock  on  the  other  side.  That  so  prodigious  a  piece  of 
work  should  be  thus  duplicated  seemed  to  us  a  very 
astonishing  waste  of  energy;  for  even  Young  did  not 
have  much  faith  in  his  own  suggestion  that  two  pre 
historic  railway  companies  had  secured  rights  of  way 


THE    HANGING   CHAIN.  167 

along  the  opposite  sides  of  the  canon,  and  had  begun 
the  building  there  of  rival  lines. 

But  the  matter  was  explained,  presently,  by  our  find 
ing  that  this  other  path  was  but  a  doubling  of  the  path 
that  we  were  on.  As  we  rounded  a  turn  in  the  canon 
we  came  suddenly  to  a  broad  natural  ledge  in  the  rock, 
over  which  hung  a  great  projection  of  the  cliff  so  that 
the  sky  above  was  hid  from  us.  Here  our  path  went 
off  into  the  air,  and  began  again  on  the  other  side 
of  the  vastly  deep  chasm,  a  good  sixty  feet  away. 
"  Rather  long  for  a  jump,"  was  Rayburn's  curt  com 
ment  as  we  pulled  up  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice  and 
looked  at  each  other  blankly.  Yet  it  was  evident  that 
those  who  had  made  with  such  great  expense  of  toil 
and  time  these  path-ways  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
canon  had  crossed  in  some  way  from  the  one  to  the 
other  at  this  point,  and  the  only  surmise  that  seemed 
to  fit  the  facts  of  the  case  was  that  there  had  been 
stretched  across  the  chasm  a  swinging  bridge  of  lianas 
— such  as  still  are  to  be  found  spanning  streams  in  the 
hot  lands  of  Mexico  —  and  that  in  the  course  of  ages 
this  had  rotted  entirely  away.  But  as  this  bridge,  if 
ever  there  had  been  one  here,  was  absolutely  gone, 
we  found  ourselves  in  as  shrewdly  strait  a  place  as 
men  well  could  be  in.  To  go  ahead  was  as  clearly  im 
possible  as  was  the  hopelessness  of  turning  back  upon 
our  path.  At  the  most,  we  could  only  return  to  the 
valley  out  of  which  we  had  climbed  with  such  thank 
fulness  ;  and  rather  than  go  back  to  die  of  starva 
tion  in  that  place,  so  beautiful  and  so  desolate,  there 
was  not  one  of  us  but  would  have  chosen  to  end  all 


168  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

quickly  by  springing  into  the  gulf  above  which  we 
stood. 

But  while  we  thus  stood  in  dreary  contemplation  of 
the  miserable  prospect  before  us,  Young,  as  his  habit 
was,  was  spying  about  him  sharply,  and  so  spied  out 
a  way  of  deliverance  for  us.  The  announcement  of  his 
discovery  was  made  in  a  very  characteristic  way. 

"  You  set  up  to  be  some  punldns  of  an  engineer,  now 
don't  you  ?"  he  said,  addressing  Rayburn.  "  But  did 
you  ever  happen  to  hear  of  a  bridge  that  was  hung  up 
at  one  end  an'  that  was  operated  by  swingin'  it  back 
ward  an'  forward  like  a  pendulum  ?" 

"No,"  Rayburn  answered,  promptly  and  decisively, 
"I  never  did." 

"So  I  thought,"  Young  went  on.  "Well,  you've 
admitted  that  in  sev'ral  things  th'  man  who  was  in 
charge  of  construction  on  this  line  could  have  given 
you  points,  an'  this  swingin'  bridge  notion  is  one  of 
'em.  I  can't  say  that  I  think  much  of  it.  It  wouldn't 
do  in  railroads,  for  sure;  but 'there  is  a  good  deal  to  be 
said  in  favor  of  it  when  it  helps  folks  out  of  such  a 
hole  as  we're  in  now — an'  if  it  still  is  in  workin'  order, 
that  is  just  what  it's  going  to  do.  There  it  is.  Do  you 
catch  on?" 

We  all  looked  in  the  direction  in  which  Young  point 
ed,  for  his  gesture  was  so  earnest  that  even  Fray  An 
tonio  and  Pablo  caught  the  meaning  of  it,  and  so  saw 
— pendent  from  a  point  far  up  on  the  overhang  of  rock, 
and  but  indistinctly  showing  in  the  shadow— a  great 
chain  that  at  its  lower  end  was  caught  in  a  metal  hook 
get  in  the  face  of  the  cliff  at  the  extreme  back  of  the 


THE    HANGING    CHAIN.  169 

ledge  on  which  we  stood.  For  my  part,  I  did  not  at  once 
catch  the  meaning  of  Young's  words  even  when  I  saw 
the  chain,  but  Rayburn  understood  it  all  in  a  moment. 

"  By  Jove  !"  he  exclaimed,  "  that  is  a  notion  !  You 
grab  the  end  of  it  and  just  swing  across  to  the  other 
side  !" 

Young  already  had  loosened  the  chain  from  the  hook 
and  was  testing  its  strength  by  putting  his  weight  on 
it.  At  the  end  of  it  was  a  crossbar  big  enough  to  get 
a  good  grip  upon  ;  and  this,  and  the  chain  itself,  were 
wrought  of  the  bright,  hard  metal  of  which  we  had 
encountered  so  many  specimens.  The  upper  end  was 
made  fast  high  above  us  in  the  out-jut  of  rock,  very  near 
ly  over  the  centre  of  the  canon  ;  so  that  no  great  force 
was  required  to  carry  whoever  grasped  the  crossbar, 
and  so  swung  out  boldly,  clear  across  the  chasm  to  the 
ledge  on  the  other  side.  But  I  confess  that  the  thought 
of  such  a  passage  made  me  feel  a  little  dizzy  and  sick ; 
and  never  did  I  long  to  be  safely  back  in  my  class-room 
at  Ann  Arbor  as  I  did  just  then ! 

"It  seems  t'  be  all  right,"  said  Young,  "but  I  guess 
you  may  as  well  take  a  pull  on  it  with  me,  Rayburn. 
There'd  be  no  fun  in  bavin'  it  fetch  away  when  a  man 
was  about  half  across,  an'  we  may  as  well  make  th' 
thing  sure."  And  then,  as  the  chain  still  held  firm 
under  the  double  strain,  he  added,  "  Well,  here  goes  ;" 
and,  so  speaking,  took  a  running  start  and  went  swing 
ing  out  over  the  abyss. 

My  heart  was  in  my  mouth  as  he  leaped  forth  and 
shot  out  from  and  far  below  us  ;  but  in  a  moment  he 
rose  along  the  curve  that  he  was  traversing  and  was 


170  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-IIOUSE. 

safely  landed  on  the  other  side.  "  It's  a  boss  invention. 
Workin'  it  is  just  as  easy  as  rollin'  off  a  log,"  he  called 
across  to  us;  and  to  show  how  easily  the  passage  was 
made,  he  instantly  swung  himself  back  again. 

Pablo  had  manifested  signs  of  strong  uneasiness 
while  this  talk  and  action  were  in  progress,  and  in  a 
very  anxious  tone  he  now  inquired:  "But  how  will  it 
be  with  the  Wise  One,  senor  ?" 

"  Why,  gettin'  him  across  will  be  as  easy  as  open 
an'  shut,"  Young  answered,  speaking  in  English  to 
Rayburn  and  to  me.  "  We1!!  just  rig  him  in  th'  rope 
slings  again,  an'  make  him  fast  to  th'  chain,  an'  give 
him  a  good  boost  to  start  him,  and  over  he'll  go  before 
he  fairly  knows  he's  started." 

But  when  we  came  to  apply  this  brisk  statement  of 
the  case  practically,  we  found  it  by  no  means  easy  of 
execution.  El  Sabio  grew  restive  as  we  arranged  the 
slings  of  rope  about  his  body,  evidently  remembering, 
fearfully,  the  strange  journey  that  he  had  made  in  the 
air  when  we  had  rigged  him  in  a  like  manner  in  or 
der  to  trice  him  up  to  where  the  stair  began;  and  he 
grew  yet  more  restive  as  we  fastened  the  rope  slings 
to  the  end  of  the  chain.  Rayburn  had  crossed  to  the 
other  side — passing  the  chain  back  by  weighting  it  with 
a  rock — and  stood  ready  to  receive  El  Sabio  when  he 
was  swung  across.  But  partly  owing  to  a  want  of 
skill  in  our  management  of  him,  yet  more  to  his  own 
unruliness — for  just  as  we  started  him,  with  a  strong 
push,  he  clapped  down  his  fore-feet  upon  the  edge  of 
the  cliff  and  so  checked  his  swing  outward — he  did  not 
swing  within  reach  of  Rayburn's  hands.  And  so  he 


THE   HANGING   CHAIN.  1?1 

came  back  towards  us  again,  and  then  out  once  more 
towards  Rayburn;  and  so  swung  slowly  and  yet  more 
slowly  until  at  last  he  hung  motionless  over  the  very 
middle  of  the  gulf,  with  nothing  between  him  and  the 
rocks  below  but  a  thousand  feet  of  air.  And  then  El 
Sabio  began  to  kick  with  a  vigor  that  set  to  rattling 
every  link  in  the  chain ! 

Pablo  was  cast  by  this  mischance  into  a  veritable 
frenzy  of  fright ;  and  we  were  most  seriously  frighten 
ed  also — not  only  because  the  destruction  of  the  poor 
ass  was  imminent,  but  because  of  the  danger  which  men 
aced  ourselves.  Our  party  was  divided,  and  should  the 
chain  give  way,  under  stress  of  El  Sabio's  kicks  and 
plunges,  all  possibility  of  our  coming  together  again  was 
at  an  end.  Rayburn  might  leave  us  and  go  on ;  and 
so,  perhaps,  save  his  own  life.  But  for  the  rest  of  us 
there  would  be  no  hope.  Behind  us  was  death  by  star 
vation.  In  front  of  us  was  this  impassable  gulf. 

From  Pablo,  who  was  quite  wild  with  dreadful  an 
ticipations  of  the  parting  of  the  chain  and  the  loss  to 
him  forever  of  his  friend,  least  was  to  be  expected  in 
the  strait  wherein  we  were;  yet  it  was  from  Pablo  that 
our  rescue  came.  With  a  quick  apprehension  of  the 
needs  of  the  case,  he  rove  a  running-knot  in  the  end  of 
one  of  the  pack- ropes,  and  with  a  dexterous  cast  of  this 
improvised  lasso  set  the  loop  of  it  about  El  Sabio's  neck 
as  that  unfortunate  animal  for  a  moment  ceased  his 
stragglings  and  hung  still.  And  then  we  all  strained 
on  the  rope  together,  and  in  a  minute  had  El  Sabio 
safely  with  us  again ;  but  in  such  a  state  of  terror  that 
pity  for  him  wrung  our  hearts. 


172  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

But  the  limpness  which  the  reaction  from  such  dead 
ly  fear  threw  him  into  made  handling  him  easy ;  and 
this  time,  when  we  launched  him  forth  (taking  the 
precaution,  however,  to  fasten  one  end  of  a  rope  to  the 
chain),  he  went  sailing  across  the  full  width  of  the 
chasm,  and  Rayburn  in  a  moment  had  him  landed  in 
safety.  The  instant  that  the  chain  was  loosened  Pab 
lo  hauled  it  back,  and  an  instant  later  swung  lightly 
across  the  canon,  and  straightway  fell  to  fondling  the 
terrified  creature  and  comforting  him  with  all  manner 
of  tender  words.  And  he  so  piteously  besought  us  to 
give  El  Sabio  one  good  drink  that  we  passed  the  water- 
keg  and  the  bucket  across,  and  permitted  the  poor  ass 
to  drink  half  of  our  stock  of  water  without  debate  of 
the  sacrifice.  Indeed,  this  refreshment  was  so  necessary 
to  him  that  without  it  I  doubt  if  he  could  have  gone  on. 

While  El  Sabio  thus  gathered  courage  and  strength 
again,  Young  swung  over  to  the  other  side,  and  we 
passed  our  stores  across  from  ledge  to  ledge — having 
ropes  made  fast  to  the  chain,  and  so  steadying  each 
load  from  the  one  side  while  we  hauled  from  the  oth 
er.  This  was  easy  work,  and  we  quickly  finished  it. 
When  it  was  ended  I  braced  myself  for  the  flying 
journey  through  the  air  across  that  gulf  so  deep  that 
the  bottom  of  it  was  lost  in  black  shadows,  through 
which  the  sparkling  water  faintly  gleamed ;  and  my 
heart  so  throbbed  within  me  as  I  took  the  bar  in  my 
hands,  with  the  knowledge  that  should  I  lose  hold  of 
it  death  waited  for  me  below  in  those  dark  shadows,  that 
my  breath  came  irregularly  and  I  heard  a  dismal  ring 
ing  in  my  ears.  Yet  I  had  less  to  fear  than  either  of 


THE    HANGING    CHAIN.  173 

the  others  who  had  crossed  before  me,  for  the  ropes 
still  were  fast  to  the  chain ;  and  should  I  not  swing  far 
enough  I  would  be  helped  to  safety  by  my  compan 
ions.  But  for  shame,  I  should  have  made  my  body 
fast  to  the  chain  by  a  rope  sling,  and  so  have  gone 
across  as  our  stores  had  gone  rather  than  as  a  man. 
But  my  pride  forbade  my  surrender  in  this  fashion  to 
my  fears ;  and  it  was  a  lucky  thing  for  me  that  it  did. 
Holding  the  bar  in  my  hands,  I  ran  briskly  across 
the  ledge,  and,  with  a  strong  kick  on  the  edge  of  the 
cliff  to  give  me  additional  impetus,  I  went  spinning 
out  into  space.  For  an  age,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  I 
sank  rapidly  ;  while  that  horrible  feeling  possessed  me 
— the  like  of  which  people  subject  to  sea-sickness  feel 
as  the  ship  drops  away  beneath  them  into  the  trough  of 
the  sea — of  falling  away  from  my  own  stomach.  And 
then,  just  as  my  strength  seemed  to  be  failing,  and  my 
hold  on  the  bar  loosing,  I  perceived  that  I  was  rising 
again ;  and  this  put  a  little  fresh  heart  in  me,  and  I 
tightened  my  grip  on  the  bar.  Ten  seconds,  no  doubt, 
was  the  full  extent  of  the  time  that  my  passage  con 
sumed;  but  it  seemed  to  me  then,  and  it  seems  to 
me  still  as  I  think  of  it,  a  long  ten  years.  And  a  thrill 
of  terror  goes  through  me  as  I  think  also  of  how  near  I 
then  came  to  a  horrible  death;  for  at  the  very  moment 
that  I  reached  the  farther  side  of  the  canon  there  was  a 
little  tinkling  sound  in  the  air  above  me,  and  the  bar 
that  I  held  was  twitched  out  of  my  hands,  and  then  came 
a  loud  jingling  of  metal  on  rock,  and  as  I  turned  quickly 
I  saw  a  gleam  of  sunlight  catch  the  great  chain  as  it 
went  twisting  downward  into  the  black  gulf  below. 


174  THE  AZTEC  TBEASURE-HOUSE. 


XV. 

THE    TEMPLE    IN   THE    CLOUDS. 

DOUBTLESS  the  violent  strain  to  which  the  chain  had 
been  subjected  by  El  Sabio's  kicking  and  plunging  had 
loosened  the  fastenings,  centuries  old,  which  held  it  to 
the  rock;  for  the  chain  had  not  broken,  but  had  come 
away  entire.  I  sank  down  on  the  rock  as  weak  with 
terror  as  the  poor  ass  had  been;  and  like  him  I  drank 
greedily  of  water,  and  panted  for  a  while,  and  at  last 
found  my  courage  coming  back  to  me. 

Yet  my  case  was  a  happy  one  compared  with  that 
of  Fray  Antonio.  Howsoever  narrow  my  escape  had 
been,  the  fact  remained  that  I  had  come  out  from  my 
encounter  with  Death  safe  and  unharmed;  but  on  Fray 
Antonio's  shoulder  we  could  but  dread  that  Death  al 
ready  had  laid  his  hand.  And  that  he  knew  how  close 
to  him  Death  was  standing  we  could  see  by  a  certain 
elate  and  confident  air  of  courage  in  his  bearing,  and 
by  the  wonderful  tenderness  and  sweetness  of  his  smile. 
Truly,  never  did  I  know  a  man  so  ready  at  all  times  as 
this  man  was  to  lay  down  the  life  that  God  had  given 
him;  holding  it  but  as  a  trust  that  might  at  any  mo 
ment  be  called  back  to  the  source  whence  it  came.  Yet 
because  it  was  a  trust,  meant  to  be  put  to  useful  pur 
poses,  Fray  Antonio  valued  his  life  and  carecl  for  it, 


THE    TEMPLE    IN   THE    CLOUDS.  175 

And  at  this  time  it  was  he  himself  who  devised  a  plan 
by  which  it  might  be  saved. 

The  ropes  which  were  fastened  to  the  chain,  being 
held  stoutly  on  the  one  side  by  Fray  Antonio  and  on 
the  other  by  Young,  fortunately  had  broken  as  the 
great  weight  of  the  chain  suddenly  had  come  upon 
them,  and  had  broken  so  close  to  the  knots  which  held 
them  that  nearly  the  whole  of  their  length  remained. 
The  plan  that  the  monk  now  devised  for  coming  across 
to  us — and  a  bold  heart  was  required  even  to  think  of 
this  daring  enterprise — was  that  with  the  two  ropes 
fastened  about  his  body  at  one  end,  and  held  by  all  of 
us  at  the  other,  he  should  swing  down  into  the  chasm 
and  far  under  the  promontory  of  rock  on  which  we 
stood,  and  then  that  we  should  haul  him  up  to  us.  The 
great  difficulty  in  the  way  of  executing  this  plan  was 
in  getting  the  line  across  between  us ;  its  great  danger 
lay  in  the  probability — notwithstanding  the  depth  of 
the  recess  beneath  us — that  he  would  be  dashed  against 
the  rocks  with  such  force  as  to  kill  him  outright. 

But  Young,  who  usually  was  ready  for  any  emer 
gency  that  might  arise,  roused  out  a  ball  of  twine  that 
was  a  part  of  our  stores,  and  one  end  of  this  he  made 
fast  to  a  fragment  of  rock,  and  by  a  strong  heave  of  it 
landed  it  safe  on  the  other  side;  whereafter  the  rigging 
of  the  double  rope  across  was  an  easy  matter. 

Very  carefully,  testing  the  knots  as  he  made  them, 
Fray  Antonio  fastened  the  double  line  about  his  body, 
beneath  his  shoulders,  and  so  stood  ready  on  the  edge 
of  the  chasm ;  while  we  four  stood  holding  the  line, 
with  all  our  muscles  braced  for  the  strain  that  would 


176  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

corne  upon  it  as  he  swung  downward.  For  a  moment 
he  paused,  with  his  face  turned  upward  while  his  lips 
moved.  Then  he  waved  his  hand,  and  smiled  as  he 
called  across  to  us, "  It  is  as  God  wills !"  and  so  drop 
ped  away  from  the  ledge,  and  like  a  flash  went  down 
beyond  our  range  of  sight. 

We  felt  the  jar  on  the  ropes  as  his  body  struck 
against  the  face  of  the  cliff  far  below  us,  and  the  reflex 
action  as  he  swung  out  again,  and  thereafter  the  slower 
motion  of  the  ropes  as  he  swayed  back  and  forth  dan 
gling  over  that  black  and  awful  chasm.  And  as  the 
ropes  settled  into  steadiness  we  drew  him  up  towards 
us ;  yet  dreaded,  because  of  the  dull  weight  of  it,  and 
because  no  assuring  cry  came  up  to  us,  that  what  we 
lifted  was  a  corpse. 

And,  in  truth,  as  we  raised  the  body  of  Fray  Antonio 
over  the  edge  of  the  cliff  it  seemed  as  though  this  dread 
were  realized ;  for  a  great  bloody  gash  was  upon  his 
temple,  and  his  limbs  were  limp  and  lifeless,  and  his 
face  was  deathly  pale.  At  sight  of  which  there  came 
into  my  heart  a  bursting  pain,  as  though  some  one  had 
stabbed  me  there  ;  and  there  were  tears  in  Young's 
eyes ;  and  Rayburn  gave  vent  to  his  sorrow  in  a  great 
curse  that  was  half  a  groan.  As  for  Pablo,  whom  no 
danger  could  daunt,  and  who  would  bear  without  flinch 
ing  any  hurt  of  his  own,  this  dreadful  sight  so  moved 
him  that  he  fainted  dead  away. 

Yet  even  in  the  moment  that  such  deep  sorrow  seem 
ed  to  be  settling  down  upon  us,  Fray  Antonio  slightly 
moved  his  lips,  and  there  came  forth  from  them  a  low 
faint  sigh — whereupon  Young  jumped  up  with  a  shout 


THE  TEMPLE  IN  THE  CLOUDS.  177 

and  relieved  his  mind  by  administering  to  Pablo  a 
hearty  kick,  which  he  accompanied  with  the  remark: 
"You  infernal  fool  of  a  Greaser  Indian,  what  do  you 
mean  by  swoundin'  ?  He  ain't  dead  at  all !" 

As  tenderly  as  I  could  for  the  trembling  of  my  hands, 
I  washed  away  the  blood  from  about  the  cut  and  bathed 
Fray  Antonio's  pale  face,  while  Ray  burn  gave  him  a 
sup  of  whiskey  from  his  flask.  And  then,  presently, 
his  eyes  opened  and  energy  came  into  his  body  once 
more.  In  a  little  while  he  was  on  his  feet  again,  and 
as  well  as  ever,  save  for  the  smarting  of  his  cut,  and 
in  his  head  a  dizziness  and  a  dull  throbbing  pain.  Just 
what  had  happened  he  could  not  tell.  He  knew  that 
he  had  struck  against  the  rock  with  his  feet,  as  he  had 
planned  to  do;  but  he  must  have  swung  around,  when 
the  force  of  the  impact  had  been  thus  partly  broken, 
and  struck  his  head  against  some  sharp  projection,  and 
so  have  been  cut  and  stunned.  But  it  made  no  great 
difference  how  his  hurt  had  come  to  him,  since  it  had 
not  proved  to  be  a  deadly  one;  therefore  we  forbore  to 
question  him  further  concerning  it,  and  sought  by  quiet 
talk,  that  led  softly  into  silence,  to  take  his  thoughts 
away  from  the  peril  that  he  had  been  in.  Indeed,  we 
all  were  glad  to  rest  quietly  where  we  were  for  the 
night,  for  our  bodies  were  tired  and  our  nerves  were 
racked  and  strained. 

We  should  hav.e  been  most  thankful  for  a  big  potful 
of  coffee,  but  there  was  no  wood  with  which  we  could 
make  a  fire.  The  best  that  we  could  do,  and  there  was 
not  much  comfort  in  it,  was  to  chew  some  coffee  grains 
after  we  had  made  a  supper  upon  one  of  our  few 
12 


178  THE  AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

remaining  tins  of  meat;  and  then  we  rolled  ourselves  in 
our  blankets  and  lay  down  upon  the  bare  rock.  And 
I  must  say  that  if  anybody  had  asked  me  at  that  mo 
ment  if  archaeology  was  a  study  that  paid  for  the 
trouble  that  it  cost,  I  should  have  said  most  unhesitat 
ingly  that  it  was  not. 

Even  sleep,  which  I  greatly  needed,  and  for  which  I 
earnestly  longed,  did  not  come  to  me  easily;  for  each 
time  that  I  seemed  to  be  dropping  gently  away  into 
unconsciousness  I  would  be  roused  by  the  feeling  that 
I  was  holding  fast  to  the  chain  again,  and  so  was  slid 
ing  down  the  long  curve  among  the  shadows,  with  the 
great  walls  of  the  canon  towering  infinitely  above  me, 
and  with  the  black  depth  below.  And  in  my  sleep  I 
made  again  the  dreadful  passage,  and  heard  the  clink 
ing  of  the  chain  as  it  parted,  and  the  rattle  of  it  as  it 
struck  the  rocks,  and  felt  the  grasp  of  Rayburn  as  he 
caught  me,  just  as  the  bar  was  twitched  out  of  my 
hands — and  so  woke  to  find  Young  shaking  me,  and  to 
hear  him  say:  "There's  no  earthly  sense  in  your  kick- 
in'  around  that  way,  Professor  ;  an',  anyhow,  it's  time 
t'  get  up.  It's  just  a  wonder  how  these  Mexican  morn- 
in's  put  life  into  a  man.  Why,  there's  a  freshness  in 
th'  air  that's  goin'  t'  waste  in  this  canon  that's  fit  t' 
make  a  coffin  stand  right  up  on  end  an'  dance  a  jig !" 

Even  Fray  Antonio,  but  for  the  soreness  of  his  hurt, 
felt  strong  and  well ;  and  we  ate  another  tin  of  meat — 
which  was  much  less  than  we  wanted  to  eat — and  so 
started  along  the  path  hewn  out  of  the  side  of  the  cliff; 
and  what  with  the  brightness  and  joy  fulness  of  the 
morning,  we  certainly  were  in  much  higher  spirits  than 


THE   TEMPLE    IN   THE   CLOUDS.  179 

was  at  all  reasonable  in  the  case  of  men  who  had  had 
such  close  companionship  with  Death  so  short  a  time 
before,  and  who  still  stood  a  very  fair  chance  of  dying 
dismally  of  starvation.  The  knowledge  that,  by  the 
falling  of  the  chain,  our  retreat  had  been  again  cut  off 
did  not  at  all  trouble  us.  Even  could  we  have  crossed 
the  canon,  and  so  have  retraced  our  steps,  we  could 
have  gone  no  farther  than  the  valley  of  the  lake;  and 
we  could  as  well  die  here  as  there.  And  we  were  stay 
ed  by  the  reasonable  conviction  that  the  path  which 
we  were  travelling  upon  certainly  would  lead  us  out  of 
the  mountains  at  last — even  if  it  did  not  lead  us  to 
the  hidden  city  that  we  sought. 

For  five  or  six  miles  we  doubled  on  our  course  of  tne 
day  before,  going  back  along  the  canon  and  seeing  the 
path  that  we  had  followed  a  little  below  us  on  the 
other  side ;  then,  by  a  very  easy  grade,  our  course  be 
gan  to  ascend,  and  went  on  rising  until  the  other  path 
was  so  far  below  us  that  it  ceased  to  be  distinguishable. 
Thus  we  came  to  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  the  top 
of  the  cliffs,  when  a  sudden  turn  to  the  left  carried  us 
into  a  narrow  cleft  in  the  rock.  Here  the  path  was 
very  sharply  inclined  upward  for  a  little  way;  and  for 
the  remainder  of  the  distance  to  the  top  we  ascended  a 
long  series  of  rudely  cut  steps,  so  steep  that  our  legs 
fairly  cracked  under  us  as  we  neared  the  end  of  them. 

But  we  forgot  our  weariness  as  we  came  out  upon 
the  summit  at  last,  and  a  great  view  of  clouds  and 
mountain  peaks  burst  upon  us  ;  the  like  of  which  I 
never  have  seen  approached  save  by  the  view  out  over 
the  (runnison  country  from  the  crest  of  the  Marshall 


180  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Pass.  But  here  we  saw  all  around  us  what  there  is 
seen  only  in  one  direction ;  for  we  were  on  a  vastly 
high,  square  crest — very  like  that  called  the  Gigante, 
which  the  traveller  by  the  Mexican  Central  Railroad 
sees  to  the  left  as  he  nears  Silao  —  and  clouds  and 
mountain  peaks  rose  up  about  us  on  every  side. 

But  we  did  not  long  contemplate  this  heroic  land 
scape,  for  a  cloud,  which  almost  enveloped  us  as  we 
finished  our  ascent  of  the  stair,  was  swept  still  farther 
away  by  the  brisk  wind  then  blowing;  so  that  sud 
denly  a  vast  building  loomed  largely  through  the  fly 
ing  vapor,  and  in  a  moment  was  clear  and  distinct 
before  our  eyes.  To  find  upon  this  bare  mountain- 
top,  among  cloud  solitudes  so  profound  as  these,  such 
overpowering  evidence  of  the  labor  and  strength  of 
man,  sent  thrilling  through  our  breasts  a  wonder  that 
was  akin  to  awe.  It  seemed  unreal,  impossible,  that 
in  such  a  place  such  work  could  be  accomplished ;  and 
the  very  tangible  reality  of  it  made  it  seem  to  me  one 
of  those  prodigies  of  man's  creation  which  old  stories 
tell  of  as  having  been  wrought  by  a  league  with  the 
devil  and  at  the  cost  of  a  human  soul. 

Had  there  been  any  signs  at  all  of  human  life  about 
this  solemn  and  majestic  building,  or  upon  the  mount 
ain-top  whereon  it  stood,  the  chilling  hold  that  it  took 
upon  our  imaginations  would  have  been  less  strong. 
What  wrought  upon  us  was  the  deadly  silence,  and 
the  absolute  stillness  of  everything  save  the  drifting 
clouds.  It  seemed  to  us  as  though  we  had  come  out  from 
the  living  world  and  our  own  time  into  a  dead  region 
belonging  to  a  long  dead  past  j  and  I  remembered  with 


AT   THE    BARRED    PASS.  181 

a  shudder  that  we  had  entered  this  region  through 
that  gloomy  cavern,  where  hundreds  of  the  ancient 
dead  were  clustered  in  silent  worship  about  the  great 
silent  idol  carved  in  everlasting  stone.  It  seemed  as 
though  some  evil  spell  hung  over  us,  that  doomed  us 
forever  to  wander  in  wild  solitudes — which  were  the 
more  appalling  because  constantly  uprose  before  us 
tangible  evidence  of  the  strong  current  of  eager  hu 
man  life  that  had  pulsed  through  them  in  former 
times.  Young  but  put  into  his  own  rough  language 
the  thought  that  was  in  all  our  hearts  when  he  de 
clared,  with  a  great  oath,  that  for  the  sake  of  getting 
safe  out  of  this  lonely  hole  he'd  contract  to  fight  Ind 
ians  three  days  in  every  week  for  the  rest  of  his  life, 
and  be  glad  to  do  it  for  the  comfort  of  having  some 
body  around  who  was  alive. 


XVI. 

AT   THE    BABRED   PASS. 

THE  whole  top  of  the  mountain,  near  a  mile  square, 
had  been  so  levelled  by  nature  that  little  remained 
to  be  done  for  its  further  smoothing  by  the  hand  of 
man.  But  the  amount  of  work  that  had  gone  into 
the  mere  preparation  for  the  building  of  the  great 
temple  was  almost  incredible.  In  the  centre  of  the 
plateau  a  pyramidal  mass  of  rock  near  a  thousand  feet 
square,  of  a  piece  with  the  mountain  itself,  had  been 
so  shaped  and  hewn  that  it  rose  in  three  great  terraces 


182  tfllE   A2*EC  TREASUKE-HOtJgg. 

to  the  square  apex  on  which  the  temple  stood.  These 
terraces  slanted  upward,  surrounding  the  pyramid  by 
a  continuously  ascending  way  that  had  its  beginning 
and  its  ending  in  the  centre  of  the  eastern  front — so 
that,  allowing  for  the  diminishing  size  of  the  pyramid, 
the  distance  by  this  way  from  the  bottom  to  the  top 
of  it  was  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half. 

"It  just  took  a  slow-goin',  lazy  heathen  Greaser  t' 
think  out  a  thing  like  this,"  Young  observed  as  we 
went  up  the  path.  "  Now,  if  th'  Congregationalists 
that  I  was  brought  up  among  had  put  a  church  on  a 
place  like  this — an'  they  wouldn't  have  been  likely  t'  be 
fools  enough  t'  do  anything  of  th'  sort — they'd  'a'  had  a 
set  of  steps  runnin'  smack  from  th'  bottom  t'  th'  top, 
an'  folks  would  have  got  up  in  no  time.  It's  just  th' 
Greaser  fashion  all  over  t'  spend  a  hundred  years  or  so 
in  makin'  a  path  five  miles  long  around  a  hill  about  as 
high  as  th'  Boston  State-house,  so's  they  can  get  up  it 
easy  an'  save  their  wind.  But  I  wish  they'd  put  in 
drinkin'  fountains  along  th'  road.  I'm  as  thirsty  as  a 
salt  cod — an'  there's  so  precious  little  water  left  in  th' 
keg  that  I'm  afraid  t'  begin  at  it  for  fear  of  suckin'  it 
all  up." 

"Drinking  fountains?"  Rayburn,  who  was  a  little 
in  advance,  called  back  to  us.  "  Well,  so  they  did. 
Come  along  and  drink  as  much  as  you  want  to." 

"Cut  that,  Rayburn,"  Young  answered.  "I'm  too 
dead  in  earnest  about  my  being  thirsty  to  stand  any 
foolin'." 

"  I'm  not  fooling  " — we  had  caught  up  with  him  by 
this  time — "look  for  yourself." 


AT   THE    BAKRED    PASS.  183 

To  which  Young's  only  reply  was  to  spring  forward 
eagerly  and  drink  a  long  deep  draught  from  a  stone 
basin  beside  the  path  into  which  trickled  a  tiny  stream 
from  above.  Finding  water  in  this  unlikely  place  was 
as  great  a  surprise  as  it  was  a  joy  to  us  ;  for  we  all 
longed  for  it,  yet  dared  not  drink  freely  because  our 
supply  was  nearly  gone.  It  was  touching  to  hear  the 
long  sigh  of  happiness  that  El  Sabio  gave  when  at  last 
he  lifted  his  dripping  snout  out  of  the  basin  ;  and  then 
to  see  the  look  that  he  gave  Pablo,  as  though  to  thank 
him  for  so  blessedly  plentiful  a  drink.  In  truth,  the 
Wise  One  had  not  tasted  a  drop  of  water  for  nearly 
twenty-four  hours — not  since  his  perilous  passage  of  the 
canon — and  his  throat,  and  his  poor  little  inside  gener 
ally,  must  have  been  very  dry. 

When  we  came  out  on  the  top  of  the  pyramid  at 
last,  which  at  that  moment  was  wrapped  in  clouds  al 
most  as  dense  as  London  fog,  we  perceived  the  ingen 
ious  plan  that  had  been  adopted  in  order  to  secure 
water  plentifully  on  this  mountain -top.  By  careful 
scoring  of  the  rock  with  many  little  channels,  all  lead 
ing  to  a  cistern  that  seemed  to  be  of  great  dimensions, 
the  warm  vapor  of  the  clouds  as  it  condensed  into  wa 
ter  on  touching  the  chill  stone  surface  was  captured 
and  safely  stored  away.  And  from  the  overflow  of 
the  cistern  the  fountain  below  was  fed. 

But  we  did  not  stop  to  examine  very  carefully  into 
this  matter,  so  eager  were  we  to  press  on  to  the  temple 
close  before  us.  This  stood  upon  a  terraced  platform, 
cut  from  the  living  rock,  and  was  a  perfectly  plain 
structure — with  walls  slightly  receding  inward  as  they 


184  THE    AZTEC   TEEASUKE-HOUSE. 

rose,  and  wholly  destitute  of  ornamentation.  For  its 
majestic  effect  it  depended  upon  its  great  size  and 
upon  its  admirable  proportions  ;  and  being  built  of 
the  dark  rock  of  which  the  mountain  was  formed,  and 
having  about  it  much  of  the  sombre  feeling  that  char 
acterizes  Egyptian  architecture,  it  had  an  air  of  great 
solemnity  and  gloom. 

In  silence  we  ascended  the  short  flight  of  steps  that 
led  to  the  broad,  doorless  entrance — the  only  opening 
through  the  massive  walls — and  so  came  into  the  vast 
shadowy  hall  that  these  great  walls  enclosed.  From 
front  to  back  of  this  hall  extended  many  rows  of  stone 
pillars — like  the  single  row  found  in  the  great  cham 
ber  among  the  ruins  of  Mitla — and  by  these  were  up 
held  the  huge  slabs  of  stone  of  which  the  roof  was 
made.  Far  away  from  where  we  stood,  down  at  the 
end  of  a  long  vista  of  pillars,  was  a  stone  altar  on 
which  was  carved  in  stone  a  colossal  figure  of  the  god 
Chac-Mool.  Looking  back  through  the  open  entrance, 
I  saw  a  break  in  the  mountain  peaks  to  the  eastward; 
and  so  perceived  that  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun 
must  needs  enter  here  and  strike  full  upon  the  disk 
that  was  poised  in  the  figure's  hands.  As  Pablo 
caught  sight  of  the  great  idol  recumbent  there,  a  mo 
mentary  shudder  went  through  him  and  he  made  cer 
tain  motions  with  his  hand  before  his  eyes  that  were 
strange  to  me. 

As  we  drew  near  to  the  altar  we  found  that  in  front 
of  it  was  a  sacrificial  stone,  still  darkly  stained  where 
blood  had  flowed  upon  it;  and  beneath  the  stone  neck- 
yoke,  still  resting  there,  was  a  withered  remnant  of 


AT   THE    BARRED    PASS.  185 

human  vertebrae.  There  was  something  very  ghastly 
in  finding — preserved  by  the  very  stone  that  had  held 
him  down  while  life  was  let  out  of  him — this  mere 
scrap  of  the  last  human  victim  who  had  perished  here. 
As  in  the  desolate  valley,  so  also  on  this  desolate 
mountain-top,  the  only  proof  that  human  life  ever  had 
been  here  was  found  in  proof  of  human  death. 

Save  that  our  curiosity  was  gratified,  and  the  bless 
ing  of  the  water  which  we  had  found,  our  ascent  of 
the  great  pyramid  and  our  examination  of  the  temple 
bore  no  fruit.  Young,  who  still  seemed  to  think  that 
tilting  up  and  disclosing  secret  passages  was  an  attri 
bute  of  all  statues  of  the  god  Chac-Mool,  was  here 
again  convinced  that  his  generalization  from  a  single 
case  was  not  a  sound  one.  In  a  serious  way — that  in 
itself  would  have  been  laughable  but  for  the  gloom  of 
our  surroundings — he  climbed  upon  the  altar  and  sat 
first  on  the  head  of  the  god,  and  then  on  his  feet,  and 
even  tried  the  effect  of  seating  himself  upon  the  stone 
disk  that  the  god  upheld  above  his  navel.  But  through 
all  of  these  experiments  the  stone  figure  remained  sol 
idly  immovable. 

"  I  guess  there  was  only  one  o'  that  tippin'  kind," 
Young  said,  at  last,  "  an'  he  sort  o'  flocked  by  himself. 
Let's  get  out  of  here,  anyway.  If  this  ever  was  the 
Aztec  bank  that  we're  lookin'  for,  there  must  have 
been  a  prehistoric  run  on  it  that  cleaned  it  out.  They 
must  have  done  that  sort  o'  thing  in  old  times,  eh,  Pro 
fessor?  But  it  don't  make  much  difference  to  us  now 
what  they  did  or  what  they  didn't ;  an'  we'd  better 
fill  up  with  water  an'  get  out — that  is,  if  there  is  any 


186  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

way  of  gettin'  out  except  along  the  way  we  came. 
There's  no  good  in  goin'  back  that  way.  It  would 
be  better  t'  settle  down  here  an'  starve  comfortably 
without  weariri'  out  shoe-leather  doin'  it.  But  I  don't 
mean  t'  do  that  until  I've  had  a  look  all  around  th' 
top  of  this  god-forsaken  mountain,  an'  made  sure  that 
there's  only  one  way  down." 

My  own  thoughts  had  been  dwelling  on  the  possi 
bility  that  Young's  words  expressed ;  for  at  this  defi 
nite  point  to  which  we  had  come,  the  path  that  we  had 
come  by  very  reasonably  might  end — so  leaving  us  in 
this  lonely  region  among  the  clouds  to  die  slowly  for 
lack  of  food.  And  there  was  a  certain  fitness  in  our 
having  made  our  way  so  far  among  the  dead  only  our 
selves  to  die  that  added  sombre  fancies  to  our  environ 
ment  of  sombre  realities.  Yet  there  was  a  heartiness 
in  Young's  resolutely  expressed  determination  to  search 
for  a  way  out  of  our  difficulties  before  at  all  yielding 
to  them  that  insensibly  cheered  me.  His  words  had  a 
plucky  ring  to  them  ;  and  bravery  is  as  catching  as  is 
fear. 

Our  empty  water -kegs  were  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pyramid,  and  when  we  reached  the  fountain  on  our 
downward  way  we  waited  there  while  Pablo  went  on 
with  El  Sabio  and  fetched  them  up  to  us.  There  was 
at  least  solid  comfort  in  knowing,  as  we  went  on 
downward  with  the  kegs  all  filled,  that,  whatever  other 
death  might  come  to  us,  at  least  we  could  not  die  of 
thirst.  At  the  bottom  of  the  pyramid  we  left  Fray 
Antonio  and  Pablo,  with  El  Sabio  and  the  packs,  and 
the  three  of  us  set  out  to  explore  the  three  sides  of  the 


AT   THE    BARRED    PAS-.  187 

mountain-top  that  were  unknown  to  ns  in  search  of  a 
downward  path.  A  heavy  mass  of  clonds  had  drifted 
over  the  mountain  again,  so  thick  that  at  a  rod  away 
all  was  white  mist  around  us;  and  the  light  was  grow 
ing  faint,  for  the  day  had  come  nearly  to  an  end.  In 
deed,  had  we  been  upon  the  lower  levels  of  the  earth 
night  would  have  been  already  upon  us. 

Making  my  way  along  the  edge  of  the  precipice, 
where  the  plateau  broke  sheer  off,  was  ticklish  work  ; 
and  half  humorous,  half  melancholy  thoughts  went 
through  my  mind  touching  the  absurdity  of  an  ex- 
professor  of  Topical  Linguistics  in  the  University  of 
Michigan  being  thus  employed  in  path-hunting  upon 
a  lonely  mountain  -  top  in  Mexico.  Truly,  adversity 
brings  us  strange  bedfellows  ;  but  far  stranger  are  the 
straits  into  which  a  man  comes  who  takes  up  with  the 
study  of  archaeology  at  first-hand.  But  my  path-hunt 
ing  was  without  result,  for  nowhere  along  the  edge  of 
the  plateau  was  there  a  break  fit  for  the  descent  of  any 
creature  save  such  as  had  wings.  At  the  end  of  near 
an  hour  the  clouds  once  more  lifted ;  and  then  I  saw 
Rayburn  coming  towards  me,  but  with  a  serious  look 
upon  his  face  that  told  that  he  also  had  been  unsuc 
cessful  in  his  search. 

"  It  has  rather  a  bad  look,  Professor,"  he  said, 
briefly,  when  I  had  told  him  that  along  all  the  face 
of  the  mountain  that  I  had  examined  the  rock  went 
down  sheer.  He  filled  his  pipe  and  lighted  it.  and 
we  walked  back  to  the  base  of  the  pyramid  in  silence, 
while  he  smoked.  Young  had  not  returned;  but  pres 
ently  we  heard  a  shout  that  had  so  hopeful  a  sound 


188  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

in  it  as  to  start  us  both  to  our  feet  and  forth  to  meet 
him. 

"  Have  you  found  a  way  down  ?"  Ray  burn  called, 
as  he  came  nearer  to  us. 

"You  bet  I  have,"  he  called  back;  "and,  what's 
more,  I've  seen  somethin'  to  eat." 

"Seen  something!"  Rayburn  answered,  as  he  joined 
us.  "  Why  the  dickens  didn't  you  get  it  ?" 

"Well,  because  it  was  better'n  a  mile  away  from 
me.  It  looked  like  a  mountain  sheep,  as  well  as  I  could 
make  out ;  but  there  it  was  for  sure ;  an'  thinkin'  how 
good  that  critter  will  taste  roasted  has  given  me  a 
regular  twistin'  pain  all  through  my  empty  inside! 
But  th'  point  is  that  down  on  that  side  o'  th'  mount 
ain  there's  game  ;  I  saw  birds,  too,  but  I  couldn't 
make  out  what  they  were  ;  an',  somehow,  it  looks 

different  down  there.  It  don't  look  like  these  d n 

dead  places  we've  been  prowlin'  through  for  more'n 
a  coon's  age.  It  looks  as  if  God  remembered  it,  an' 
it  was  alive!  Why,  th'  very  smell  that  came  up  had 
somethin'  good  about  it ;  an'  there  was  a  different 
taste  to  th'  air.  I  tell  you,  Rayburn,  I  didn't  know 
what  a  lonely  an'  mis'rable  an'  lost  chump  sort  of  a 
way  I  was  in  until  I  looked  over  there  into  that  place 
where  th'  whole  business  ain't  run  by  dead  folks. 
An'  what's  more,  Professor,  that's  the  trail  for  us; 
for,  right  where  it  starts  down,  there's  th'  King's 
symbol  an'  th'  arrow,  all  reg'lar,  blazed  on  thj 
rock." 

"Is  the  trail  good  enough  to  make  a  start  on  now?" 
Rayburn  asked;  "we  won't  have  more  than  half  an 


AT   THE    BARRED    PASS.  189 

hour  more  light,  but  I'd  give  a  lot  to  get  off  this 
mountain  before  dark,  and  every  foot  down  that  we 
go  we'll  be  that  much  warmer.  We'd  stand  a  pretty 
fair  chance  of  freezing  up  here  to-night  without  any 
fire." 

"  Th'  trail's  all  right  for  a  good  half-mile,  anyway," 
Young  answered ;  "  an'  I  guess  it's  good  all  th'  way. 
It's  pretty  much  th'  same  as  th'  one  we  come  up  by, 
an'  that's  good  enough,  where  it  don't  jump  canons, 
t'  go  along  in  th'  dark;  but  we  must  rustle  if  we 
mean  t'  do  much  by  daylight." 

We  were  back  at  the  pyramid  by  this  time,  and  we 
found  Fray  Antonio  very  willing  to  be  off  with  us  that 
we  might  try  to  get  well  down  the  mountain  before 
night  set  in;  for  at  that  great  elevation  the  quick  beat 
ing  of  his  heart  added  very  sensibly  to  the  throbbing 
pain  of  his  wound.  Therefore  we  lost  no  time  in  get 
ting  our  packs  upon  our  backs,  and  upon  the  back  of 
El  Sabio,  and  briskly  started  downward  ;  and  the  keen 
cold  that  came  into  the  air,  as  the  sun  sunk  away  be 
hind  the  mountain  peaks  at  last,  warned  us  that  it  was 
safer  to  take  the  risks  of  a  descent  almost  in  darkness 
than  to  stay  for  the  night  upon  that  bleak  mountain- 
top  without  a  fire. 

In  twenty  minutes  we  perceived  a  comforting  change 
in  the  temperature  ;  and  at  the  end  of  an  hour — dur 
ing  the  last  half  of  which  we  walked  slowly  and  cau 
tiously  through  the  fast-thickening  darkness — there 
was  enough  warmth  in  the  air  about  us  to  make  camp 
ing  for  the  night  endurable.  But  we  still  were  at  a 
great  elevation,  and  the  thin  air  was  bitingly  keen, 


190  THE   AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

and  all  the  more  so  because  of  the  scant  meal  that  we 
had  to  comfort  us  and  to  put  strength  into  us  before 
we  wrapped  ourselves  in  our  blankets  for  sleep. 

"What's  a  mis'rable  two  pounds  of  corned -beef 
among  five  of  us,"  Young  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  of  an 
gry  contempt,  "  when  every  man  in  th'  lot  is  hungry 
enough  t'  eat  th'  whole  of  it,  an'  th'  tin  box  it  conies 
in,  an'  then  go  huntin'  for  a  square  meal  ?  An'  t1 
think  o'  that  sheep  I  saw !  I  say,  Rayburn,  did  you 
ever  eat  a  roast  fore-shoulder  of  mutton,  with  onions 
an'  potatoes  baked  under  it,  an'  a  thick  gra — " 

"  If  you  don't  hold  your  jaw  about  things  like 
that,"  Rayburu  struck  in,  "I'll  murder  you!" — and 
there  was  such  fierceness  in  his  voice,  and  he  truly 
was  such  a  savage  fellow  when  his  anger  was  up,  that 
Young  was  half  frightened  by  his  outburst,  and  so 
was  silent.  I  must  say  that  I  wish  that  he  had  alto 
gether  held  his  tongue ;  for,  somehow,  the  smell  of 
mutton  and  onions  and  potatoes,  all  cooking  together, 
was  so  strong  in  my  nostrils,  and  this  smell  so  set  to 
yearning  my  very  hollow  inside,  that  it  was  a  long 
while  before  I  could  sleep  at  all ;  and  when  I  did 
sleep,  it  was  to  be  pursued  by  dreams  of  painful  hun- 
griness  which  were  but  too  surely  founded  in  painful 
fact.  Certainly,  it  was  very  indiscreet  in  Young,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  to  make  a  remark  of  that  nature  at 
that  untoward  time. 

However,  that  was  the  last  day  that  we  suffered  for 
want  of  food.  I  was  awakened  in  the  very  early  morn 
ing  by  the  sound  of  a  rifle-shot,  and  sprang  to  my  feet, 
brandishing  my  revolver,  with  a  confused  belief  in  my 


AT  THE    BARRED   PASS.  191 

sleepy  mind  that  we  were  attacked  by  Indians  again ; 
and,  truly,  ray  first  feeling  was  one  of  pleasure  at  the 
thought  of  meeting,  even  in  deadly  combat,  with  men 
who  were  alive. 

"  It's  all  right,  Professor,"  Rayburn  said.  "  We're 
not  fighting  anybody.  But  I've  killed  a  mountain 
sheep,  and  if  we  only  can  get  him  we'll  have  a  solid 
breakfast,  even  if  we  have  to  eat  him  raw.  He  was 
over  on  that  point  of  rock,  and  he's  tumbled  down 
clear  into  the  valley,  and  the  sooner  we  get  down 
there  and  hunt  for  him  the  better." 

In  the  bright  light  of  the  early  morning  we  could  see 
below  us  a  glad  little  valley,  in  which  trees  and  grass 
grew,  and  in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  tiny  lake.  But 
what  gave  us  most  joy  was  seeing  birds  flying  over 
the  face  of  the  water,  and  half  a  dozen  mountain  sheep 
scampering  away  at  the  sound  of  Rayburn's  shot. 
Truly,  the  sight  of  these  live  creatures  was  the  most 
cheery  that  ever  came  to  my  eyes;  and  as  I  beheld 
them,  and  realized  that  at  last  we  had  emerged  from 
the  dreary,  death-stricken  region  in  which  as  it  seemed 
to  me  we  had  spent  years,  a  great  wave  of  happiness 
rolled  in  upon  and  filled  my  heart.  As  it  was  with  me, 
so  was  it  with  the  others :  who  gave  sighs  of  gladness 
as  thus  they  found  themselves  no  longer  wanderers 
among  the  chill  shades  of  ancient  death,  but  once  more 
moving  in  the  warm  living  world. 

The  path,  cut  out  along  the  mountain  -  side,  went 
downward  by  a  sharper  grade  than  that  by  which  we 
had  ascended;  and  we  descended  it  joyfully  at  a  swing 
ing  trot,  with  a  new  life  in  us  that  made  us  break  out 


192  THE    AZTEC   TEEASUEE-HOUSE. 

into  lively  talk  and  laughter  that  set  the  echoes  to  ring 
ing.  And  presently,  in  a  very  jerky  fashion  because 
of  his  rapid  motion,  Pablo  piped  away  on  his  mouth- 
organ  with  "  Yankee  Doodle  " — and  this  was  the  first 
time  that  he  had  had  the  heart  to  play  upon  his  be 
loved  "  instrumentito  "  since  our  passage  of  the  lake 
beneath  which  lay  the  city  of  the  dead. 

In  an  hour  we  came  fairly  down  into  that  bright 
and  lovely  valley,  where  was  the  sweet  sound  of  birds 
calling  to  each  other,  and  the  glad  sight  of  these  live 
creatures  flying  through  the  air.  As  for  the  sheep  that 
Rayburn  had  killed,  he  was  knocked  pretty  well  into  a 
jelly  by  his  half-mile  or  so  of  tumble  down  the  mount 
ain-side.  But  we  were  not  disposed  to  be  over-fastid 
ious,  and  we  quickly  had  his  ribs  roasting  over  a  brisk 
fire:  that  yet  was  not  so  brisk  as  was  our  hunger,  for 
we  began  to  eat  before  the  meat  was  much  more  than 
warmed  through.  When  our  ravening  appetite  was  ap 
peased  a  little,  Young  got  out  the  coffee-pot  and  set 
to  making  coffee.  And  then,  with  meat  well  cooked 
and  coffee  in  abundance,  we  made  such  a  meal  as  can 
be  made  only  by  half-starved  men  who  suddenly  have 
come  forth  from  the  dark  shadows  of  threatening  death 
into  the  glad  sunshine  of  safety.  Of  what  further  perils 
might  be  in  store  for  us  we  neither  cared  nor  thought. 
Our  one  strong  feeling  was  the  purely  animal  joy  bred 
of  deliverance  from  gloom  and  danger,  and  the  packing 
of  our  bellies  with  hearty  food. 

When,  at  last,  our  huge  meal  was  ended,  we  settled 
back  upon  our  blankets,  and  fell  to  smoking.  Present 
ly  Rayburn  gave  a  prodigious  yawn  and  laid  aside  his 


AT   TUB    BARRED    PASS.  193 

pipe.  "  I  think  I'll  take  a  nap,"  he  said.  I  saw  that 
Young  already  was  nodding  and  that  Pablo  had  sunk 
down  into  slumber  ;  while  El  Sabio,  who  had  come 
even  closer  to  starving  than  we  had  come,  most  thank 
fully  rummaged  among  the  rich  grass.  My  eyes  were 
heavy,  and  I  stretched  myself  out  on  my  blankets,  with 
the  warm  sunshine  comforting  my  stiffened  body,  and 
presently  sunk  softly  into  delicious  sleep. 

I  partly  woke  a  few  moments  later,  as  Fray  Antonio 
rose,  thinking  that  we  all  were  lost  in  slumber,  and 
walked  a  little  apart  from  us.  He  alone  had  made  a 
meal  in  reasonable  moderation,  and  I  saw  now  that  he 
had  gone  aside  to  pray.  For  a  moment  the  thought 
stirred  in  me  that  I  would  join  him  in  what  I  knew 
was  his  thanksgiving  for  our  deliverance ;  but  sleep 
had  too  strong  a  hold  upon  me,  and  my  body  slowly 
fell  back  upon  the  blankets  and  my  eyes  slowly  closed, 
carrying  into  my  slumber  the  sight  on  which  they  last 
had  rested:  the  monk  kneeling  upon  the  grass  beside 
a  great  gray  rock,  with  clasped  hands  and  face  turned 
upward,  pouring  his  soul  out  in  grateful  prayer. 

It  was  well  on  in  the  afternoon  when  we  all  woke 
again;  and  Young's  first  remark  was  that  it  must  be 
about  supper-time.  Rayburn  fell  in  with  this  notion 
promptly,  and  so  did  I  myself — rather  to  my  astonish 
ment,  for  it  seemed  unreasonable  that  after  such  a 
stuffing  I  should  desire  to  eat  so  soon  again.  But  we 
did  make  a  supper  almost  as  hearty  as  our  breakfast 
had  been,  and  in  a  little  while  wrapped  ourselves  in 
our  blankets,  with  our  feet  towards  the  heaped-up  fire, 
and  went  off  once  more  to  sleep,  and  slept  through 
13 


194  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

until  sunrise  of  the  following  day.  In  truth,  the  men 
tal  strain,  bred  of  our  gloomy  surroundings  and  of  the 
dread  of  starvation  that  had  possessed  us,  had  taxed 
our  physical  strength  more  severely  than  our  mount 
ain  climbing  and  our  lack  of  nourishment.  The  great 
amount  of  strong  food  that  we  ate,  and  our  long  slum 
ber,  showed  nature's  demand  upon  us  that  our  waste 
of  tissue  should  be  made  good. 

When  we  woke  again  on  the  second  morning,  we 
all  were  fresh  and  strong  and  eager  to  press  onward. 
There  was  little  left  of  the  sheep  to  carry  with  us  ;  but 
Rayburn  shot  half  a  dozen  birds,  some  species  of  duck, 
as  we  skirted  the  lake  in  our  passage  across  the  val 
ley,  so  there  was  no  fear  that  we  should  lack  for  food. 
At  its  western  end  the  valley  narrowed  into  a  canon. 
There  was  no  choice  of  paths,  for  this  was  the  sole 
outlet,  and  we  were  assured  that  we  were  on  the  right 
path  by  finding  the  King's  symbol  and  the  pointing 
arrow  carved  upon  the  rock.  The  canon  descended 
very  rapidly,  and  by  noon  we  were  so  far  below  the 
level  of  the  Mexican  plateau  that  the  air  had  a  tropical 
warmth  in  it ;  and  so  warm  was  the  night — for  all  the 
afternoon  we  continued  to  descend — that  we  had  no 
need  for  blankets  when  we  settled  ourselves  for  sleep. 

Rayburn  was  of  the  opinion  that  we  were  close  upon 
the  Tierra  Caliente,  the  hot  lands  of  the  coast;  and 
when  we  resumed  our  march  in  the  morning  he  went 
on  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  us,  that  he  might  maintain 
a  cautious  outlook.  If  he  were  right  in  his  conjecture 
as  to  our  whereabouts,  we  might  at  any  moment  come 
upon  hostile  Indians.  It  was  towards  noon  that  he 


AT  THE    BARRED    PASS.  195 

came  softly  back  to  us  and  bade  us  lay  down  our 
packs  and  advance  silently  with  him,  carrying  only  our 
arms.  "  There's  something  queer  ahead ;  and  I  thought 
that  I  heard  voices,"  he  explained.  "But  there  must 
be  no  shooting  unless  we  are  shot  at.  Some  of  these 
Indians  are  friendly,  and  we  don't  want  to  start  a  row 
with  them  if  they  are  willing  not  to  row  with  us." 

The  canon  was  very  narrow  at  this  point,  and  high 
above  us  its  walls  drew  so  closely  together  that  the 
shadows  about  us  were  deep.  As  we  rounded  a  bend 
in  it,  the  rock  closed  above  our  heads  in  a  great  arch, 
so  that  we  were  in  a  sort  of  natural  tunnel;  at  the  far 
end  of  which  was  a  bright  spot  showing  that  a  wide 
and  sunny  open  space  was  beyond.  But  over  this  open 
ing  were  bars  which  cut  sharply  against  the  light,  as 
though  a  gigantic  spider  had  spun  there  a  massive  web; 
and  as  we  drew  nearer  to  this  curious  barrier  we  saw 
beyond  it  a  broad  and  glorious  valley,  rich  with  all 
manner  of  luxuriant  tropical  growth  and  flooded  every 
where  with  the  warm  light  of  the  sun. 

We  approached  the  strange  barrier  cautiously,  and 
our  wonder  at  it  was  increased  as  we  found  that  it  was 
made  of  the  bright  metal  of  which  we  had  found  so 
many  specimens ;  and  still  more  we  wondered  as  we 
found  that  the  bars  were  fastened  on  the  side  from 
which  we  approached,  so  that  we  could  remove  them 
easily,  while  from  the  side  of  the  valley  they  presented 
an  impassable  barrier.  In  strong  excitement  we  drew 
out  the  metal  pins  which  dropped  into  slots  cut  in  the 
rock  and  so  held  the  bars  fast,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
we  had  cleared  the  way  for  our  advance,  Just  as  we 


196  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

were  making  ready  to  pass  through  the  opening  we 
heard  the  sound  of  voices;  and  as  we  quickly  drew  back 
into  the  shadows  two  men  sprang  up  suddenly  before 
us,  and  cried  in  wonder  as  they  saw  that  the  lower 
bars  across  the  opening  were  gone.  Yet  the  expression 
upon  their  faces  was  not  that  of  anger;  rather  did  they 
seem  to  be  stirred  by  a  strong  feeling  of  joy  with  which 
was  also  awe.  Both  men  were  accoutred  in  the  fashion 
which  the  pictured  records  show  was  usual  with  the 
Aztec  warriors,  and  one  of  them — as  was  indicated  by 
his  head-dress  and  by  the  metal  corselet  that  he  wore 
— was  a  chief;  and  they  challenged  us  sharply,  yet  with 
gladness  in  their  tones,  in  the  Aztec  tongue. 

So  sudden  and  so  ringing  was  this  challenge,  and  so 
startling  was  the  uprising  of  the  men  before  us,  that 
as  we  sprang  back  into  the  shadow  we  instinctively 
stood  ready  with  our  arms.  But  Fray  Antonio,  not 
having  any  intent  to  join  in  the  fight,  was  cooler  than 
the  rest  of  us,  and  instantly  perceived  that  fighting  was 
not  necessary.  Therefore  he  it  was  who  first  spoke 
to  these  strangers;  and  his  first  word  to  them  was, 
"Friends!" 

Then  the  watchmen,  for  such  they  seemed  to  be, 
spoke  eagerly  together  for  a  moment,  and  pressed  to 
the  opening  to  look  upon  us ;  yet  seeing  us  but  dim 
ly  because  of  the  dark  shadows  which  surrounded  us. 
Pablo  was  closest  to  them,  and  I  marvelled  to  see  how 
like  them  he  was  in  look  and  in  air.  Him  they  first 
caught  sight  of,  and  as  they  saw  him  they  both  turn 
ed  from  the  opening,  and,  as  though  calling  to  some  one 
at  a  distance,  gave  both  together  a  great  glad  shout, 


AT   THE    BARRED    PASS.  197 

Instantly,  at  some  little  distance,  the  cry  was  repeated; 
and  so  again  farther  on  and  yet  farther,  with  ever  more 
voices  joining  in  it;  so  that  it  swelled  and  strength 
ened  into  a  great  roar  of  rejoicing  that  seemed  to  sweep 
over  the  whole  of  the  valley  before  us,  and  to  fill  it 
everywhere  with  tumultuous  sounds  of  joy. 

As  though  the  duty  that  they  were  charged  with  had 
been  thus  accomplished,  the  men  turned  again  to  us, 
and  he  of  the  higher  rank,  speaking  the  Aztec  language, 
yet  with  turns  and  changes  in  that  tongue  which  were 
strange  to  me,  eagerly  called  to  us: 

"  Come  forth  to  us  !  Come  forth  to  us  !"  he  cried. 
"  Now  is  the  prophecy  of  old  fulfilled  and  the  watch 
rewarded  that  our  people  have  maintained  from  gen 
eration  to  generation  through  twenty  cycles  here  at 
the  grated  way  !  Come  forth  to  us,  our  brothers — who 
bring  the  promised  message  from  our  lord  and  king !" 

I  turned  to  Fray  Antonio  as  these  words  were  spoken, 
and  I  saw  in  his  face  that  which  made  me  confident  in 
my  own  glad  conviction  that  here  at  last  was  the  secret 
place  for  which  so  long,  and  through  such  perils,  we 
had  sought.  Here  indeed  had  we  found  the  hidden 
people  of  whom  the  dying  Cacique  had  spoken  and  of 
whom  the  monk's  letter  had  told ;  the  strong  contin 
gent  of  the  ancient  Aztec  tribe  that  ages  since  the  wise 
King  Chaltzantzin  had  saved  apart,  that  when  their 
strength  was  needed  they  might  come  forth  to  ward 
their  weaker  brethren  against  conquest  by  a  foreign  foe. 
And  the  great  happiness  begotten  of  this  glad  discov 
ery  filled  all  my  body  with  a  throbbing  joy. 

Yet  as  we  went  out  through  the  opening  that  we  had 


198  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

made  between  the  bars,  and  the  watchers  saw  us  fairly 
in  the  sunlight,  they  sprang  back  as  though  in  alarm. 
Rayburn  met  this  demonstration  promptly  by  making 
the  peace-sign — raising  aloft  the  right  arm — that  is 
common  to  all  North  American  Indians  ;  and  after  a 
moment  of  hesitation  the  chief  answered  to  this  in  kind. 
So  there  was  peace  between  us  as  we  advanced  ;  but  it 
seemed  to  me  that  their  regard  of  us  now  had  in  it 
more  of  wonder  and  less  of  awe. 


XVII. 

OF  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN. 

So  unexpectedly  had  we  come  upon  these  strangers, 
and  so  marvellous  was  the  finding  thus  of  the  hidden 
tribe  for  which  we  had  sought  so  long,  that  I  could 
not  but  dread,  as  we  advanced  towards  the  Aztec  war 
riors,  lest  I  should  wake  suddenly  and  find  that  it  all 
was  a  dream.  And  they,  also,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  looked 
upon  us  doubtingly,  and  with  somewhat  of  dread  in 
their  regard,  as  though  uncertain  whether  we  were  be 
ings  from  another  world,  or  men  of  flesh  and  blood 
like  themselves. 

Not  until  we  were  close  upon  them  did  further 
words  —  after  that  first  challenge  and  answer  —  pass 
between  us ;  and  then  the  elder  of  the  two,  still  mak 
ing  the  peace  -  sign  with  his  raised  right  hand,  and 
speaking  with  a  trembling  in  his  voice,  as  though  deep 
emotion  moved  him,  called  to  us :  "  Have  our  brothers 


OF  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE   VALLEY  OP  AZTLAN.    199 

need  of  our  strength?     Bring  ye  the  token  that  sum 
mons  us  to  their  aid  ?" 

I  should  have  been  glad  just  then  for  opportunity 
to  consult  with  my  companions  as  to  what  answer  I 
should  make  to  these  questions,  for  I  perceived  that 
our  position  was  a  very  critical  one,  and  that  even 
our  lives  might  depend  upon  the  wisdom  of  my  reply. 
For  a  moment  I  waited  in  the  hope  that  Fray  Antonio 
would  make  answer;  but  as  he  remained  silent,  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  that  I  should  take  the  hazard 
upon  myself.  Therefore,  bringing  forth  the  ancient 
piece  of  gold  from  the  snake-skin  bag — for  so  I  had 
carried  it  constantly,  even  as  the  Cacique  had  done 
before  me,  and  others  before  him,  for  more  than  three 
hundred  years — I  held  it  towards  the  man  who  had 
spoken,  and  said,  firmly  :  "Here  is  the  token  of  sum 
mons  left  behind  him  by  Chaltzantzin ;  but  we  come 
not  to  call  you  forth  to  battle,  but  to  bring  tidings 
that  the  fate  which  that  wise  king  and  prophet  foresaw 
for  his  people,  long  since  was  fulfilled.  In  the  time 
appointed,  the  stranger  foemen  overcame  and  enslaved 
your  brethren,  bringing  to  pass  that  which  Chaltzant 
zin  foretold ;  and  the  message  that  then  was  sent  to 
call  you  forth  to  their  aid  reached  you  not,  because 
even  the  wisdom  of  Chaltzantzin  was  powerless  against 
the  will  of  the  gods.  Yet  the  gods  desired  not  to  de 
stroy  your  brethren,  but  to  punish  them  ;  and  their 
punishment  now  is  at  an  end.  Once  more  are  thej 
free,  and  once  more  is  their  ruler  a  wise  and  valiant 
man  of  their  own  race.  Therefore,  the  news  which 
we  bring  you  is  not  sorrowful,  but  glad," 


200  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

While  I  was  thus  speaking,  the  ringing  cries  which 
at  the  first  alarm  had  sounded  over  all  the  valley  grew 
louder  and  stronger;  but  as  yet  we  saw  only  the  two 
men  who  at  the  first  had  confronted  us — for  we  were 
in  a  deep  recess  in  the  mountain,  whence  the  ground 
dropped  away  in  front,  so  that  the  immediate  fore 
ground  was  hid  from  us,  and  we  saw  only  some  distant 
meadows,  and  then  a  broad  lake,  and  over  this  more 
meadows  and  a  sweep  of  heavy  timber,  and  back  of  all 
great  mountains  rising  against  the  clear  blue  sky. 

But  as  my  speech  ended,  and  before  those  to  whom 
it  was  addressed  at  all  had  digested  the  wonder  of  it, 
and  so  hesitated  in  their  reply,  a  half-dozen  men  and  a 
woman  or  two  came  in  sight  in  the  narrow  way  before 
us,  panting  after  their  rapid  ascent  of  the  acclivity ; 
and  the  calls  of  others  pressing  up  the  slope  behind 
them  sounded  loudly,  arid  in  a  very  little  while  a  crowd 
of  a  hundred  or  more  pressed  about  us,  all  gazing  at 
us  and  questioning  us  with  a  most  eager  surprise.  For 
the  most  part  these  seemed  to  be  laborers  from  the 
near-by  fields  ;  for  many  of  them  carried  agricultural 
implements,  and  their  bare  legs  and  arms  were  splashed 
with  mud  and  were  grimy  of  the  soil.  As  for  the  look 
of  them,  save  that  the  flowing  garments  of  cotton  cloth 
which  the  women  wore  were  embroidered  in  a  fanciful 
fashion,  I  could  not  have  distinguished  these  people 
from  the  tallest  and  strongest  of  the  Indians  dwelling 
in  the  hot  lands  of  the  coast  about  Vera  Cruz.  The 
men,  who  wore  only  a  cloth  twisted  about  their  loins, 
were  as  magnificent  fellows  as  I  ever  saw.  Every 
one  of  them  was  tall  and  straight,  with  broad  shoul- 


OP  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN.  201 

ders  and  narrow  hips,  and  the  muscles  of  their  arms 
and  legs  stood  out  like  cords.  From  Pablo,  who  was 
an  unusually  tall  and  well -formed  lad,  they  differed 
only  in  the  color  of  their  skins — which  were  decided 
ly  darker  than  his,  as  was  to  be  expected  in  the  case 
of  men  dwelling  in  this  tropical  region  at  the  level  of 
the  sea. 

Towards  Pablo  these  people  manifested  a  familiar 
curiosity  quite  unlike  their  reverential  manner  towards 
the  rest  of  us,  who  so  obviously  were  not  of  their  own 
race.  And  Pablo  was  as  much  perplexed  by  their 
questions  as  they  were  by  his  answers ;  for  never  was 
a  conversation  carried  on  so  hopelessly  at  cross-pur 
poses.  Our  boy,  being  spoken  to  by  folk  who  obvi 
ously  were  as  entirely  Mexicans  as  he  was  himself,  and 
in  a  tongue  that  practically  was  that  which  he  had 
been  born  to — for  the  Indians  dwelling  in  the  Gua 
dalajara  suburb  of  Mexicalcingo,  being  the  direct  de 
scendants  of  a  pure  Aztec  stock,  speak  the  Nahua  lan 
guage  very  correctly — could  not  at  all  realize  that  he 
was  at  last  among  the  ancient  race  for  which  we  had 
searched  so  long.  It  was  his  belief  that  we  had  come 
out,  in  accordance  with  Rayburn's  forecast,  into  the 
coast  country,  and  that  the  people  around  him  were 
the  ordinary  dwellers  in  the  hot  lands.  And  the  Az 
tecs,  knowing  him  to  be  one  of  themselves,  no  doubt 
believed  that  he  knew  of  the  purpose  for  which  they 
had  been  left  to  dwell  apart,  and  so  plied  him  with 
questions  concerning  their  brethren  from  whom  through 
long  ages  they  had  been  separated. 

As  their  talk  went  on,  getting  the  more  involved 


202  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

with  every  question  and  reply,  a  tendency  towards  ill- 
temper  began  to  develop  itself  on  each  side  ;  for  Pablo 
considered  that  these  people,  who  professed  to  be  igno 
rant  of  so  important  a  city  as  Guadalajara,  were  mak 
ing  game  of  him  ;  and  they  were  not  less  disposed  to 
believe  that  he  either  was  answering  them  falsely  or 
that  he  was  a  fool.  Fortunately,  before  any  harm  came 
of  these  misunderstandings,  an  interruption  brought  a 
temporary  end  to  their  talk. 

There  was  a  stir  among  the  crowd,  and  then  an  open 
ing  was  made  in  it,  through  which  came  an  elderly  man 
wearing  military  trappings  similar  to,  but  much  hand 
somer  than  those  worn  by  the  two  warriors  whom  we 
had  first  encountered;  and  it  was  obvious,  from  the  air 
of  deference  with  which  these  saluted  him,  that  he  was 
their  superior  officer.  In  spite  of  the  dignity  of  his 
demeanor  it  was  evident  that  he  was  greatly  excited 
by  our  advent,  and  his  voice  quivered  and  broke  a  lit 
tle  as  he  asked  us  who  we  were  and  whence  we  came. 
As  I  repeated  what  I  had  already  told  the  guard,  and 
showed  the  gold  token,  the  expression  upon  his  face 
was  that  of  extreme  perplexity.  That  the  gold  token 
gave  us  a  strong  claim  upon  his  respect,  almost  upon 
his  reverence,  was  apparent  in  his  manner  as  I  showed 
it  to  him ;  but  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  pre 
sented  obviously  rendered  him  very  uncertain  as  to 
what  action  was  propor  for  him  to  take. 

When  I  had  finished  my  statement,  and  had  returned 
the  token  to  its  place  in  the  snake-skin  bag  (for  the 
wisdom  of  carefully  retaining  this  potent  talisman  in 
our  possession  was  evident),  the  officer  turned  to  the 


OF  OtTR  COMING  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN.    203 

two  warriors,  and  they  conversed  for  a  while  in  low 
tones  apart  from  us.  Of  their  talk  I  could  catch  only 
a  few  words,  but  several  times  I  heard  repeated  the 
name  Itzacoatl,  and  frequent  reference  was  made  to 
the  Twenty  Lords.  I  gathered,  too,  that  the  name  of 
the  officer  was  Tizoc,  and  that  the  name  of  the  elder 
of  the  two  warriors,  a  swarthy  man,  was  Ixtlilton.  In 
the  mean  time,  out  of  respect  to  the  officer,  the  crowd 
had  drawn  away  from  us — being  now  swelled  to  very 
considerable  numbers — but  those  composing  it  gazed 
at  us  in  wonder,  and  among  them  was  a  steady  mur 
mur  of  low  talk,  like  the  buzzing  of  a  hive  of  bees. 

When  his  conference  with  the  warriors  was  ended, 
Tizoc  approached  us,  and  with  him  came  a  younger 
man,  who  carried  a  roll  of  paper  in  his  hand.  The  face 
of  the  officer  still  wore  a  troubled,  doubting  expression, 
and  these  feelings  were  expressed  also  in  the  tones 
of  his  voice  as  he  spoke  to  us.  "  For  the  coming  of 
the  token  from  our  lord  Chaltzantzin  we  who  dwell  in 
this  Valley  of  Aztlan  have  waited  through  many  ages," 
he  said  ;  "  but  the  promise  was  given  that  the  token 
should  come  to  us  from  our  brethren  in  the  time  of  their 
need,  and  should  be  brought  by  those  of  our  own  race. 
But  you  tell  us  that  the  tiniB  of  need  long  since  is  past, 
and  ye  who  bring  the  token  are  of  a  race  that  is  strange 
to  us ;  and  even  this  one  among  you  who  seems  to  be 
of  our  brethren  speaks  strangely  of  strange  things. 
Had  ye  come  in  the  way  that  long  past  was  prom 
ised,  there  would  have  been  no  room  for  questioning 
your  right  of  entry  here  nor  your  authority  over  us ; 
and  I,  who  am  the  Warden  of  the  Pass — being  in  right 


204  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

succession  from  him  whom  our  lord  Chaltzantzin  ap 
pointed  to  this  high  office — would  have  been  the  first 
to  do  you  reverence  and  honor.  But  in  this  strange 
case  that  has  arisen  I  hold  it  to  be  my  duty  to  send 
news  of  your  coming  to  the  Priest  Captain,  Itzacoatl, 
that  he  and  his  Council  of  the  Twenty  Lords  may  de 
cide  what  now  is  right  to  do.  In  this  I  mean  no  dis 
respect  and  no  unkindness ;  and  while  we  await  the 
Priest  Captain's  orders  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  to  offer 
you  that  rest  and  refreshment  of  which  you  stand  in 
need." 

To  this  firm  but  courteous  speech  I  was  in  the  act 
of  replying  in  fit  terms  of  equal  courtesy — for  all  that 
Tizoc  had  said  was  so  reasonable  that  no  exception 
could  be  taken  to  it — when  an  outburst  on  Young's 
part  interrupted  me. 

"  Hold  on  there,  young  fellow !"  he  cried.  "  I'll  be 
shot  if  I'm  goin'  t3  stand  bein'  made  a  fool  of  that 
way !  If  you  can't  make  a  better  likeness  of  me  than 
that,  you'd  better  shut  up  shop  an'  go  out  of  th' 
business." 

I  turned  quickly,  and  saw  Young  standing  beside 
Tizoc's  attendant,  and  looking  half  angrily  and  half 
laughingly  at  the  sheet  of  paper  that  he  held  in  his 
hand.  Fearful  that  some  harm  might  come  from 
Young's  maladroitness,  I  joined  them  quickly;  and 
only  a  strong  sense  of  the  gravity  of  our  situation  re 
strained  me  from  laughing  outright  as  I  beheld  the 
cause  of  his  wrath.  For  the  secretary,  as  I  now  per 
ceived  him  to  be,  had  made  sketches  in  color  of  each 
member  of  our  party ;  and  while  they  all  did  violence 


OP  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE  VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN.  205 

to  our  vanity,  that  of  Young — with  a  bald  head  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  size  of  his  body,  and  with  most 
aggressively  red  hair — was  so  outrageous  a  caricature 
that  there  really  was  some  justice  in  his  resentment 
of  it. 

But  this  was  not  a  time  when  resentment  could  be 
safely  manifested,  and  I  hurriedly  explained  to  Young 
that  these  pictures,  no  doubt,  were  to  be  transmitted 
as  a  part  of  the  report  that  Tizoc  was  about  to  make 
to  the  King  concerning  us,  and  that  he  must  find  no 
fault  with  them. 

"  He's  goin'  t'  send  that  thing  t'  th'  King  an'  say 
it's  me,  is  he?  No,  he's  not — not  by  a  jugful !  See 
here,  Professor !  here's  a  photograph  that  I  had  tak 
en  last  spring  in  Boston.  I  meant  t'  give  it  to  a  girl 
before  I  came  away,  but  she  went  back  on  me  an'  I 
didn't.  It's  not  much  of  a  photograph,  but  it  don't 
look  like  a  squash  trimmed  with  red  clover.  If  they 
want  to  send  anything,  let  'em  send  that."  And  before 
I  could  stop  him,  Young  had  taken  the  photograph  out 
of  his  pocket-book  and  had  handed  it  to  the  secretary, 
with  the  remark,  "Just  say  t'  him,  Professor,  that  he 
is  t'  give  that  t'  th'  King,  an'  tell  him  t'  tell  th' 
King  that  Mr.  Seth  Young,  of  Boston,  sends  it  with  his 
compliments." 

After  all,  no  harm  came  of  this  absurd  performance, 
but  rather  good  ;  for  the  secretary  exhibited  the  pho 
tograph  to  Tizoc,  and  both  of  them,  and  the  two  war 
riors  also,  were  lost  in  wonder  at  its  marvellous  likeness 
to  the  original,  and  evidently  held  us  in  increasingly 
great  respect  because  we  were  the  possessors  of  such 


206  THE  AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

an  extraordinary  work  of  art.  Young  was  a  good  deal 
chagrined,  however,  because  the  picture  of  him  that 
the  secretary  had  drawn  was  forwarded  as  a  part  of 
Tizoc's  despatches.  He  said  that  since  he  had  set  up 
a  good  likeness  of  himself,  it  wasn't  the  square  thing 
to  send  the  King  a  bad  one. 

When  the  secretary,  bearing  the  despatches,  had  de 
parted,  Tizoc  requested  us  to  accompany  him  to  the 
near-by  guard-house,  where  we  could  refresh  ourselves 
by  bathing,  and  where  food  and  drink  would  be  pro 
vided  for  us.  This  order,  for  such  it  was,  we  obeyed 
gladly ;  for  we  were  both  weary  and  hungry,  and  the 
prospect  of  what  Young  described  as  a  good  wash  and 
a  square  meal  after  it,  was  very  pleasing  to  us.  A  de 
tachment  of  men  from  the  guard-house,  accoutred  in 
the  same  handsome  fashion  as  Ixtlilton  and  his  compan 
ion,  had  arrived  while  the  secretary's  portrait-work  was 
in  progress  ;  and  I  observed  that  all  of  these  guards 
men  (excepting  only  Ixtlilton,  whose  skin  was  dark,) 
were  much  lighter  in  color  and  more  gracious  in  bear 
ing  than  the  men  in  the  crowd  around  us.  So  marked, 
indeed,  was  this  difference  that  they  seemed  scarcely 
to  belong  to  the  same  race. 

As  we  moved  away  through  the  opening  that  the 
crowd  made  for  us,  with  a  platoon  of  guardsmen  in 
advance,  and  another  in  our  rear,  Pablo  touched  my 
arm  and  was  about  to  speak  to  me ;  but  before  his 
mouth  could  open  there  sounded  suddenly  from  the 
hollow  way  in  the  mountain  behind  us  a  mighty  bray. 
"  Ah,  the  little  angel !"  Pablo  cried.  "  Hearken  to  him, 
gefior,  calling  to  me,"  And  so  moved  was  Pablo  by 


OF  OUR  COMING  INTO  THE   VALLEY  OF  AZTLAN.    207 

this  evidence  of  El  Sabio's  affection  that  only  my  firm 
grasp  upon  his  arm  restrained  him  from  attempting  a 
dash  through  the  guards  to  where  the  creature  was 
penned  in  by  the  metal  bars. 

Truly,  there  is  no  sound  more  terrifying  to  those 
who  are  strangers  to  it  than  the  braying  of  an  ass ; 
therefore,  I  was  not  at  all  surprised  that  a  very  consid 
erable  part  of  the  crowd  incontinently  took  to  its  heels; 
and  I  needed  no  better  evidence  of  the  bravery  of  the 
guardsmen  who  composed  our  escort  than  the  steadi 
ness  with  which  they  faced  about  in  readiness  to  meet 
whatever  danger  might  come  forth  from  the  gap  in  the 
mountain  in  the  wake  of  this  great  roaring.  Yet  what 
they  saw  there  was  only  the  mild  face  of  the  Wise  One 
extended  towards  us  through  the  opening  in  the  bars. 

To  Tizoc,  who  was  standing  beside  me,  and  who 
had  not  displayed  even  the  slightest  tremor  of  alarm 
as  the  appalling  noise  had  broken  upon  us,  I  explained 
that  the  roaring  creature  was  not  harmful,  but  gen 
tle  and  biddable ;  and  I  begged  that  other  of  the  bars 
might  be  removed,  so  that  it  might  come  forth  and 
join  us.  That  he  acceded  instantly  to  my  request  gave 
me  a  good  opinion  of  his  own  faithfulness  and  hon 
esty  ;  for  a  man  of  a  suspicious  and  crafty  nature 
assuredly  would  have  believed  that  my  request  was 
but  a  trap  laid  for  his  destruction ;  and  thereupon  the 
bars  were  removed.  And  the  truth  of  my  words  was 
made  manifest,  as  El  Sabio  came  instantly  to  Pablo 
and  received  his  caresses  with  every  sign  of  gentleness 
and  affection.  But  even  Tizoc  did  not  disguise  his 
wonder  upon  beholding  this  strange  beast,  for  the 


208  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

largest  four-footed  creature  in  all  that  valley,  as  he 
told  me,  was  a  little  animal  of  the  deer  species,  that 
was  not  much  bigger  than  a  hare.  And  when  I  bade 
Pablo  mount  upon  El  Sabio's  back,  the  look  of  sur 
prise  in  Tizoc's  face  changed  suddenly  to  an  expres 
sion  of  troubled  doubt,  in  which  was  also  alarm.  Un 
der  his  breath  I  heard  him  mutter,  "Can  it  be  that 
the  prophecy  will  be  fulfilled?"  But  whatever  the 
cause  of  his  inward  disturbance  was,  he  spoke  not  of 
it,  but  turned  once  more  forward,  and  gave  the  order 
to  march. 

The  crowd,  seeing  that  no  harm  was  like  to  come 
to  them,  pressed  forward  once  more,  and  gazed  with 
open-mouthed  wonder — and  also,  as  it  seemed  to  me, 
with  awe — at  the  prodigious  spectacle  which  Pablo, 
gravely  riding  upon  the  ass's  back,  presented  to  them. 
And  so,  with  the  guards  before  and  behind  us,  we 
marched  onward  into  the  Valley  of  Aztlan. 


XVIII. 

THE    STRIKING    OF   A    MATCH. 

As  we  emerged  from  the  nook  in  the  mountain-side 
the  whole  of  the  valley  lay  open  before  us,  and  never 
was  a  more  lovely  spot  beheld  by  the  eyes  of  man.  A 
half-dozen  leagues  in  front  of  us  rose  the  great  mount 
ain  wall  which  shut  in  its  farther  side,  and  about  as 
far  away  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  these  walls  swept 
around  in  vast  curves  and  joined  the  cliffs  through 


THE    STRIKING    OF    A    MATCH.  209 

which  we  had  come  by  the  hollow  way  that  tunnel 
led  beneath  them.  A  noble  lake  extended  nearly  the 
whole  length  of  the  valley,  and  covered  near  a  third 
of  its  width,  and  so  seemed  less  like  a  lake  than  like 
a  calm  and  majestic  river.  From  the  water-side  the 
land  rose  in  broad  terraces,  broken  by  belts  of  timber 
and  by  many  groups  of  smaller  trees,  which,  because 
of  the  regularity  of  their  growth,  I  took  to  be  fruit 
plantations.  All  the  open  country  seemed  to  be  one 
vast  garden,  most  carefully  tended,  and  everywhere 
cut  up  by  little  canals,  whence  water  for  irrigation 
was  drawn.  Scattered  everywhere  about  the  valley 
were  single  houses  embowered  in  trees,  and  from 
where  we  stood  we  could  see  also  four  or  five  little 
towns,  which  also  were  plentifully  shaded.  And  on 
the  lake  many  boats  were  passing,  of  which  several 
were  of  a  considerable  size,  and  were  fitted  with  cu 
riously  shaped  sails.  And  all  this  exquisite  tropical 
beauty  of  ample  water  and  luxuriant  foliage  shone 
richly  beneath  the  bright  splendor  of  a  deep  blue 
tropical  sky. 

Yet  that  which  most  strongly  attracted  our  atten 
tion  was  not  this  charming  display  of  the  manifold 
excellencies  of  God's  handiwork,  but  rather  a  wonder 
ful  manifestation  of  the  handiwork  of  man.  Over 
against  us,  on  the  far  side  of  the  lake,  slantingwise 
from  where  we  stood,  rose  a  mass  of  buildings  of  such 
vastness  and  such  majestic  design  that  at  the  first 
glance  we  took  it  to  be  one  of  the  square -topped 
mountains  which  are  found  not  uncommonly  in  this 
portion  of  the  world,  and  around  the  bases  of  which 
14 


210  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

are  sloping  heaps  of  the  fragments  of  rock  which 
have  broken  away  through  countless  ages  from  their 
weather-worn  sides.  Yet  in  a  moment  we  perceived 
that  what  we  saw  was  a  walled  city  built  upon  a  great 
promontory,  that  jutted  out  from  the  mountain-side ; 
and  in  the  same  breath  Fray  Antonio  and  I  called  out 
together,  "It  is  the  city  of  Culhuacan  !" 

As  we  uttered  this  name  Tizoc  turned  towards  us 
quickly,  and  with  a  startled,  troubled  look  upon  his 
face.  "They  are  not  of  our  race,"  he  said,  as  though 
speaking  his  thoughts  aloud ;  "  yet  the  sacred  name, 
that  among  us  only  a  few  know,  is  known  to  them !" 
and  the  troubled  look  upon  his  face  deepened  as  we 
went  onward. 

The  way  by  which  we  descended  was  a  narrow  road 
carried  zigzag  down  the  cliff — for  the  pass  by  which 
we  had  entered  the  valley  was  fully  six  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  lake — and  at  short  intervals 
along  its  course  this  road  was  defended  by  walls  of 
very  solid  masonry,  pierced  with  openings  so  narrow 
that  only  one  man  at  a  time  could  pass  through  them. 
That  the  walls  were  for  defence  was  shown  by  the  piles 
of  metal  bars  on  the  inner  side  of  each  opening — the 
side  towards  the  mountain — so  arranged  that  in  a  mo 
ment  they  could  be  slipped  into  sockets  in  the  stone 
work,  thus  closing  effectually  the  way. 

Perceiving  that  we  regarded  with  surprise  this  curi 
ous  system  of  fortification,  Tizoc  explained:  "These  are 
the  barriers  set  up  against  the  Tlahuicos,  who,  heeding 
not  the  order  given  of  old  by  our  lord  Chaltzantzin,  have 
striven  many  times  to  break  forth  from  the  valley — for 


THE    STRIKING    OF    A    MATCH.  211 

among  these  men  there  are  many  of  perverse  natures 
and  evil  minds." 

In  tlahuico  I  recognized  a  Nahua  word  that  means 
"  men  turned  towards  the  earth,"  but  what  its  meaning 
might  be  in  the  sense  in  which  Tizoc  employed  it  I  did 
not  know.  I  should  have  asked  for  further  explanation 
— for  the  manner  of  this  man  was  so  frank  and  so  friend 
ly  that  it  invited  a  cordial  familiarity  —  but  as  I  was 
about  to  speak  we  passed  through  the  narrow  opening 
in  a  wall  of  unusual  height  and  strength,  and  so  came 
into  a  charming  garden,  in  the  midst  of  which  stood  a 
large  house  well  built  of  stone.  For  the  making  of  this 
garden  a  natural  nook  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  had 
been  enlarged  by  filling  in  along  its  outer  edge  against  a 
great  retaining-wall,  built  up  from  a  depth  of  a  hundred 
feet  from  the  slope  below;  and  on  the  farther  side  of 
the  plateau  thus  created,  where  the  path  down  into  the 
valley  went  on  again,  were  heavy  defensive  walls.  Near 
this  exit,  also,  was  a  long  low  building  that  I  took  to 
be  a  guard-house. 

The  crowd  that  had  followed  behind  us  from  the 
height  above  went  on  across  the  plateau,  and  out 
through  the  gate  beside  the  guard-house — its  mem 
bers  casting  many  curious  looks  at  us  as  they  departed 
— and  the  guardsmen  who  had  formed  our  escort,  at 
an  order  from  Tizoc,  went  on  to  their  quarters.  But 
Tizoc  led  us  across  the  garden  to  the  large  house  that 
stood  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  there,  with  a  formal  courte 
sy,  bade  us  enter.  This  was  his  home,  he  said,  and  we 
were  his  welcome  guests. 

The  bouse  was  so  like  the  bouses  ordinarily  found  i« 


212  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Mexico  that  we  had  no  feeling  of  strangeness  in  enter 
ing  it.  It  was  built  of  stone  neatly  laid  in  cement;  was 
but  a  single  story  in  height,  and  enclosed  a  large  cen 
tral  court,  in  the  midst  of  which  a  fountain  sparkled,  sur 
rounded  by  small  trees  and  shrubs  and  beds  of  flowers. 
All  of  the  rooms  opened  upon  this  central  court,  and 
in  the  outer  wall  the  only  opening  was  the  narrow  way 
by  which  we  had  entered — for  the  prompt  closing  of 
which  there  lay  in  readiness  a  pile  of  metal  bars.  The 
flat  roof,  also  of  stone,  was  reached  by  a  stone  stair- way 
from  the  court,  and  had  about  it  a  heavy  stone  parapet 
that  was  pierced  with  narrow  slits  through  which  jave 
lins  and  arrows  could  be  discharged.  But  these  ar 
rangements  for  defence  did  not  by  any  means  produce 
a  gloomy  effect,  as  they  would  had  we  encountered 
them  in  a  country-house  in  our  own  part  of  the  world 
• — for  similar  defensive  arrangements  are  found  in  ev 
ery  hacienda  in  Mexico  at  the  present  day,  and  even 
I,  though  my  stay  in  the  country  had  been  so  short,  al 
ready  had  become  accustomed  to  them. 

A  buzzing  chatter  of  talk,  in  which  women's  voices 
predominated,  ceased  suddenly  as  we  entered  the  court; 
and  from  the  swaying  and  twitching  of  the  curtains 
hanging  in  the  front  of  the  openings  leading  into  sev 
eral  of  the  rooms,  we  inferred  that  we  were  undergoing 
a  keen  inspection.  In  response  to  a  call  from  Tizoc, 
some  men-servants  came  out  from  one  of  the  rooms 
and  received  his  order  to  prepare  food  for  us  ;  and  he 
then  led  us  to  a  large  room  in  a  corner  of  the  court 
that  was  arranged  very  delightfully  as  a  bath.  Here 
was  a  great  stone  tank,  twenty  feet  or  so  square,  and 


THE    STRIKING    OF    A    MATCH.  213 

with  a  slanting  bottom,  so  that  the  depth  of  it  ranged 
from  two  feet  to  nearly  five,  in  which  was  fresh  run 
ning  water;  and  over  the  portion  of  the  room  that  the 
tank  occupied  there  was  no  roof  but  the  bright  blue 
sky.  On  the  stone  floor  were  beautifully  woven  mats, 
and  towels  of  cotton  cloth  hung  upon  pegs  driven  into 
the  walls,  and  in  earthen  bowls  were  fresh  pieces  of 
a  saponaceous  root  that  I  have  seen  the  like  of  in 
use  among  the  Indians  of  New  Mexico.  It  seemed  to 
strike  Tizoc  as  odd  that  we  preferred  to  make  use  of 
the  bath  successively  rather  than  all  together ;  but  he 
was  too  polite  a  man  to  interpose  any  objections  to  our 
eccentricities.  Pablo  only — coming  last  of  all  of  us — 
had  a  companion  in  his  bathing  in  the  person  of  El 
Sabio;  and  the  sleekness  of  that  excellent  animal,  when 
Pablo  had  brushed  carefully  his  long  coat  when  his 
bath  was  ended,  was  a  wonder  to  behold. 

Being  thus  refreshed,  we  heartily  welcomed  the'  ex 
cellent  meal  that  was  served  to  us  in  the  cool  shade  of 
the  veranda  by  which  the  court-yard  was  surrounded. 
Our  eating  was  somewhat  in  the  Roman  fashion,  for 
the  table  was  a  broad  slab  of  stone,  raised  but  a  little 
from  the  ground,  and  around  it  we  reclined  upon  mats, 
with  cushions  woven  of  rushes  to  lean  upon.  The  food 
was  excellent — a  small  animal  of  the  deer  species,  but 
no  larger  than  a  hare,  roasted  whole ;  birds  very  like 
quails,  delicately  broiled ;  little  cakes  made  of  maize, 
which  were  rather  like  the  hoe-cakes  of  our  Southern 
negroes  than  tortillas;  some  sort  of  sweet  marmalade; 
and  a  great  abundance  of  oranges,  mangoes,  bananas, 
and  other  fruits  common  to  the  hot  lands  of  Mexico ; 


214  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

all  of  which  fruits  were  much  more  delicate  in  flavor 
than  Mexican  fruits  usually  are;  the  result,  as  we  found 
later,  of  the  great  care  bestowed  upon  their  culture. 
Only  water  was  served  with  the  meal,  but  at  the  end 
of  it  a  small  jar  of  some  sort  of  potent  liquor  was 
brought,  very  cool,  and  with  an  excellent  spicy  taste, 
that  Tizoc  warned  us  must  be  taken  but  sparingly  ; 
and  truly  he  was  right,  as  I  found  from  the  warm  and 
mellow  feeling  of  benevolent  friendliness  that  but  half 
a  cup  of  it  infused  into  me.  Tizoc  himself  did  not  fol 
low  very  rigidly  the  advice  that  he  had  given  us  ;  and 
to  this  fact,  probably,  was  due  the  exceeding  frankness 
with  which  he  subsequently  spoke  with  us  concern 
ing  grave  matters,  of  which  he  surely  would  have  been 
reticent  had  he  been  in  a  less  genial  mood. 

"Just  ask  th'  Colonel  if  he  minds  my  smokin'  a 
pipe,  won't  you,  Professor?"  Young  said,  when  our 
meal  was  ended;  and  as  I  myself  wanted  to  smoke, 
and  as  I  was  sure  that  Rayburn  did  also,  I  made  the 
request  general.  Tizoc,  to  my  surprise — for  I  believed 
smoking  to  be  common  to  all  the  indigenous  races — 
evidently  did  not  at  all  understand  my  meaning ;  but 
perceiving  that  I  asked  to  have  some  favor  granted,  he 
courteously  gave  the  permission  that  I  desired.  As  we 
filled  our  pipes  he  watched  us  curiously;  but  when  we 
drew  out  our  matches  and  struck  fire  by  what  seemed 
to  him  but  the  turn  of  our  hands,  he  started  to  his  feet 
and  manifested  a  strange  excitement,  in  which  there 
seemed  to  be  less  of  alarm  than  of  awe.  His  voice 
shook,  and  his  whole  person  trembled,  as  he  asked, 
"  Are  ye  the  children  of  Chac-Mool,  the  God  of  Fire, 


THE    STRIKING    OF    A    MATCH.  215 

and  therefore  the  chosen  servants  of  Huitzilopochtli 
the  Terrible,  that  ye  thus  can  do  what  among  us  is 
done  only  by  our  Priest  Captain  Itzacoatl  ?" 

Both  Fray  Antonio  and  I  heard  with  delight  this 
utterance,  that  in  a  moment  settled  the  long-disputed 
question  as  to  whether  or  not  Chac-Mool  was  an  idol, 
and  settled  it,  also,  in  favor  of  the  ingenious  hypothesis 
presented  by  the  learned  Senor  Chavero.  The  moment 
was  not  a  favorable  one,  however,  for  pursuing  the 
matter  in  its  archaeological  bearings,  for  all  of  our  tact 
and  skill  just  then  were  required  to  restore  Tizoc  to 
calmness.  As  well  as  this  was  possible  in  the  language 
common  to  us — and  we  suddenly  realized  how  difficult 
it  was  to  express  in  the  Nahua  tongue  more  than  rudi 
mentary  concepts  of  the  ideas  that  we  sought  to  con 
vey — we  explained  to  him  how  matches  were  made; 
and  illustrated  our  words  by  showing  him  how  fire 
was  induced  by  friction,  even  as  the  rubbing  of  two 
pieces  of  wood  together  produced  fire  also.  This  ex 
planation  was  less  exact  than  ingenious ;  but  it  was 
one  that  he  could  understand,  and  it  had  the  effect  of 
allaying  his  alarm  sufficiently  to  permit  him  to  resume 
his  seat,  when  he  at  once  drank  off  a  whole  bowlful  of 
the  strong,  spicy  liquor  at  a  draught.  Added  to  what  he 
already  had  inside  of  him,  this  draught  set  his  tongue 
to  wagging  in  the  free  way  that  I  have  already  referred 
to,  and  he  grew  bold  enough  to  take  a  match  in  his 
hand.  But  even  in  his  cups  he  manifested  a  certain 
reverence  in  his  handling  of  it;  and  presently,  from  a 
little  bag  that  was  hung  about  his  neck,  he  produced 
the  burnt  remnant  of  a  match  that  he  compared  with  it 


216  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

critically.  "  They  are  the  same  ?"  he  asked,  as  he  ex 
tended  the  whole  match  and  the  fragment  together 
towards  us  that  we  might  examine  them. 

"They  are  the  same,"  Fray  Antonio  answered. 
"  Whence  comes  the  one  that  you  guard  so  carefully  ?" 

"  From  the  Priest  Captain — from  Itzacoatl.  With 
such  things  does  he  miraculously  set  burning  the  fire 
of  sacrifice  ;  but  he  does  not  speak  of  them  lightly,  as 
you  do  ;  he  tells  us  that  they  are  the  handiwork  of  the 
Fire  God,  Chac-Mool  ;  and  when  the  fire  of  sacrifice  is 
kindled  he  gives  what  remains  of  them  as  high  rewards 
to  those  who  have  served  well  the  State  by  brave  acts 
or  honorable  deeds.  This  which  I  cherish  was  my  re 
ward  for  crushing  a  revolt  among  the  Tlahuicos." 

Fray  Antonio  and  I  exchanged  curious  glances, 
for  the  conviction  was  forced  upon  us  both  that  the 
Priest  Captain  of  whom  Tizoc  spoke  must  either  have 
invented  friction  matches,  or  that  he  must  have  some 
secret  channel  of  communication  with  the  outside 
world.  In  either  case  it  was  evident  that  he  must  be 
a  man  of  unusual  shrewdness  ;  and  it  also  was  evident 
that  his  feeling  towards  us — since  we  also  could  per 
form  a  miracle  that  he  obviously  made  use  of  as  a 
means  of  manifesting  his  divine  right  to  rule — must 
be  that  of  strong  hostility. 

To  Rayburn  and  Young,  who  had  observed  won- 
deringly  Tizoc's  extraordinary  conduct,  I  rapidly  trans 
lated  what  he  had  said  ;  and  explained  how  serious 
our  situation  appeared  in  the  light  of  this  new  devel 
opment. 

"  Well,  it  certainly  is  cold  weather  for  this  Priest 


THE    STRIKING    OP   A    MATCH.  217 

Captain  fellow,"  Young  commented,  "if  we've  got 
hold  of  his  boss  miracle  ;  and  I  guess  you're  about 
right,  Professor — he'll  want  t'  take  it  out  of  our 
hides.  Just  poke  up  th'  Colonel  t'  telling  all  he 
knows  about  this  old  dodger.  Th'  Colonel's  got  his 
tongue  pretty  well  greased  just  now  with  his  own 
prime  old  Bourbon  —  pass  me  that  jar,  Rayburn,  I 
don't  mind  if  I  have  another  whack  at  it  myself — and 
we  may  get  something  out  of  him  that  will  be  useful. 
Try  it  on,  Professor,  any  way.  Here's  luck,  gentle 
men." 

That  Young's  tongue  also  was  a  little  greased,  as  he 
put  it,  by  this  very  agreeable  beverage  was  quite  evi 
dent  ;  but  his  wits  were  sharpened  rather  than  dulled 
by  the  drink,  and  his  present  suggestion  evidently  was 
a  very  good  one.  As  for  Tizoc,  his  disposition  tow 
ards  us  obviously  was  most  soft  and  friendly  ;  and  as 
his  mind  slowly  absorbed  the  fact  that,  somehow  or 
another,  the  Priest  Captain  had  made  a  fool  of  him 
with  a  miracle  that  was  not  really  a  miracle  at  all,  his 
choler  rose  in  a  manner  most  favorable  to  our  purposes. 
Yet  this  very  feeling  of  resentful  anger — showing  a 
growing  irreverence  of  one  to  whom  all  the  traditions 
of  his  people  gave  reverence  second  only  to  that  due 
to  the  gods  themselves — was  startling  evidence  of  the 
menace  that  our  presence  was  to  the  theocratic  ruler's 
temporal  and  spiritual  power.  Therefore  it  was  with 
a  keen  curiosity  that  we  listened — and  Tizoc  needed, 
to  induce  him  to  talk  freely,  but  little  of  the  poking-up 
that  Young  had  suggested — to  what  was  told  us  con 
cerning  the  strange  people  among  whom  we  had  come 


218  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSK. 

by  ways  so  perilous,  and  of  their  chieftain,  the  Priest 
Captain  Itzacoatl — with  whom,  as  no  spirit  of  proph 
ecy  was  needed  to  tell  us,  we  were  destined  soon  to 
engage  in  a  conflict  that  must  be  fought  out  to  the 
very  death. 


XIX. 

THE    SEEDS    OF   REVOLT. 

FOR  the  sake  of  brevity  I  shall  summarize  here  the 
statement  that  Tizoc  made  to  us,  and  for  the  sake  of 
clearness  I  shall  add  to  it  some  facts  of  minor  impor 
tance  which  came  to  our  knowledge  later — thus  at 
once  exhibiting  the  whole  of  the  troublous  condition 
of  affairs  that  stirred  dangerously  the  people  dwell 
ing  in  the  Valley  of  Aztlan  at  the  time  of  our  coming 
among  them. 

At  this  period  the  political  situation,  as  I  may  term 
it,  was  exceedingly  critical.  Three  powerful  factions 
were  in  existence  ;  and  peace  was  preserved  only  by 
the  generally  diffused  belief  that  open  revolt,  on  the 
part  of  either  one,  would  be  crushed  instantly  by  a 
temporary  coalition  of  the  other  two.  The  beginning 
of  this  unpleasantly  volcanic  condition  of  affairs  dated 
back  six  cycles — that  is  to  say,  a  little  more  than  three 
hundred  years — and  was  the  direct  result  of  a  viola 
tion  of  the  law  set  forth  by  the  wise  King  Chaltzant- 
zin  when  the  colony  was  founded,  by  which  it  was  or 
dained  that  all  among  the  Aztlanecas  who,  on  coming 


THE    SEEDS    OF    REVOLT.  219 

to  maturity,  were  weaklings  or  cripples,  should  be  put 
to  death. 

Being  once  suggested,  the  repeal  or  the  modifica 
tion  of  this  law  found  many  advocates.  Naturally,  the 
change  was  urged  most  strongly  by  all  those  whose 
sons  and  daughters  were  sickly  or  malformed,  and  so 
were  doomed  to  die  in  the  very  blossom  of  their  years. 
It  was  urged  by  the  nobles  because  the  more  astute 
among  them  perceived  the  possibility  of  so  manipu 
lating  it  that  it  would  result  in  the  creation  of  a  dis 
tinctively  servile  class  ;  and  the  priests  urged  it  be 
cause  they  also  perceived  a  way  by  which  it  might  be 
made  to  provide  more  victims  for  sacrifice  to  the  gods. 
And  so  it  came  to  pass,  through  the  influence  of  these 
diverse  elements  operating  together  towards  a  common 
end,  that  the  law  which  Chaltzantzin  had  promulgat 
ed  was  set  aside,  and  a  law  was  made  that  embodied 
the  provisions  demanded  by  the  nobles  and  the  priests, 
whereby  should  be  created  a  new  social  class  ;  which 
class,  because  of  the  infirmities  of  those  composing  it, 
received  the  name  of  Tlahuicos — "  men  turned  towards 
the  earth."  Thereafter,  the  sickly  and  the  crippled 
were  not  slain  upon  reaching  maturity,  but  then  passed 
out  from  the  class  into  which  they  were  born  and  be 
came  servitors.  And  when  the  first  cycle  was  ended 
after  the  making  of  this  new  law,  and  thenceforward 
every  year,  one  in  every  ten  among  the  Tlahuicos  was 
taken  by  lot  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  gods — for  the  priests 
craftily  had  gained  the  barbarous  concession  that  they 
demanded  by  placing  the  first  fulfilment  of  it  at  a  time 
so  far  in  the  future  that  all  concerned  in  the  granting 


220  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

of  it  would  be  dead  in  the  course  of  nature  before  it 
became  operative.  Yet  to  the  end  that  those  of  noble 
birth  might  be  saved  from  the  ignominy  of  servitude, 
it  was  provided  that  children  which  by  reason  of  nat 
ural  infirmity  were  doomed  to  become  slaves,  might 
be  saved  from  that  fate  upon  coming  to  maturity  by 
being  then  surrendered  by  their  parents  to  the  priests 
for  sacrifice.  Other  grace  there  was  none.  Excepting 
between  death  and  slavery,  there  was  no  choice  for  the 
weak  or  the  malformed. 

As  time  passed  on,  the  Tlahuicos,  marrying  among 
themselves,  had  greatly  increased  in  numbers ;  and  so 
far  from  remaining  a  weakling  race,  they  had  become, 
by  reason  of  their  frugal  mode  of  living  and  of  the 
wholesome,  hearty  labor  in  which  they  constantly 
were  engaged,  exceptionally  hale  and  strong;  the  weak 
and  crippled  among  them  being  mainly  those  who 
each  year,  because  of  such  infirmities,  were  added  to 
their  number  from  the  higher  ranks  of  the  community. 
And  thus  was  collected  together  material  as  danger 
ous  as  it  was  inflammable ;  for  the  fresh  additions  to 
the  Tlahuicos  kept  constantly  alive  in  the  whole  body 
a  spirit  of  moody  discontent,  that  time  and  again,  at 
the  season  when  the  lots  were  cast  by  which  one  in 
every  ten  was  doomed  to  death,  was  fanned  into  armed 
mutiny.  These  revolts  ever  had  as  their  single  ob 
ject  escape  from  the  valley ;  which  fact  made  evident 
enough  the  need  for  the  elaborate  system  of  defensive 
works  by  which  the  outlet  of  the  valley  was  barred. 

From  the  Tlahuicos  were  drawn  the  house-servants 
of  the  rich ;  and  by  those  of  this  wretched  class  who 


THE    SEEDS    OF    REVOLT.  221 

were  stout  of  body  all  the  heavy  labor  of  the  commu 
nity  was  carried  on — the  tilling  of  the  fields,  the  quar 
rying  of  stone,  the  building  of  houses  and  bridges  and 
roads,  the  felling  of  timber,  the  carriage  of  all  bur 
dens,  and  the  working  of  the  great  gold-mine,  concern 
ing  which  I  shall  hereafter  have  more  to  tell.  And 
all  of  these  people  were  held  in  absolute  bondage,  ei 
ther  as  the  serfs  of  individual  owners  or  as  the  prop 
erty  of  the  State  ;  for  each  year  the  new  accessions  to 
the  class  were  sold  publicly  at  an  auction  to  whoever 
would  bid  the  most  for  them ;  and  those  which  none 
would  buy,  being  too  infirm  to  be  useful  as  laborers, 
the  State  laid  claim  to — but  only  that  they  might  be 
kept  alive  until  such  time  as  they  should  be  needed  by 
the  priests  for  sacrifice. 

Yet  out  of  this  custom  of  sale,  that  on  the  face  of 
it  was  harsh  and  barbarous,  some  slight  mitigation  of 
the  cruelty  of  the  system  had  come  ;  for  the  practice 
had  grown  up  of  permitting  parents  to  buy  back  their 
own  children  —  nominally  thereafter  holding  them  as 
slaves — and  so  to  save  them  at  a  single  stroke  from 
both  death  and  servitude.  One  strong  cause  of  the 
hatred  of  the  Priest  Captain  Itzacoatl,  Tizoc  said  (and 
we  wondered  then  at  the  trembling  in  his  voice,  and 
at  the  evidently  deep  emotion  that  overcame  him  as 
he  spoke),  was  that  he  had  but  lately  forbidden  the 
continuance  of  this  practice,  by  which  only  the  letter 
of  the  law  was  obeyed. 

Until  the  promulgation  by  the  Priest  Captain  of 
this  decree,  the  priesthood,  the  military  aristocracy, 
and  the  mass  of  the  army  had  constituted,  politically. 


222  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

one  single  class.  The  civil  government  was  vested  in 
a  body  styled  the  Council  of  the  Twenty  Lords,  the 
members  of  which  originally  had  been  chosen  by 
Chaltzantzin,  and  from  him  had  received  authority, 
in  perpetuity,  to  fill  the  vacancies  which  death  would 
cause  among  them  by  selecting  the  wisest  of  each 
new  generation  to  be  Councillors.  While  the  compo 
sition  of  this  body  was  distinctively  aristocratic — for 
its  members  were  either  military  nobles  or  priests  of  a 
high  grade — there  was  in  it  also  an  element  of  democ 
racy  ;  for  both  the  priesthood  and  the  army  were  re 
cruited  from  all  classes  of  society  (saving  only  the  ser 
vile  class),  and  among  the  Twenty  Lords  there  were 
always  men  who  had  risen  from  obscurity  to  distinc 
tion  solely  by  their  own  merit.  Over  this  body  the 
Priest  Captain  presided ;  yet  was  his  will  superior  to 
that  of  the  Council,  for  he  was  the  visible  representa 
tive  of  the  gods,  and  so  centred  in  his  own  person  their 
high  authority  and  dreadful  power. 

Until  the  time  of  Itzacoatl,  each  successive  priest 
captain,  in  the  long  line  that  here  had  ruled,  had  exer 
cised  so  discreetly  his  theocratic  rights,  and  in  all  ways 
had  shown  such  wisdom  in  his  government,  that  no 
conflict  had  arisen  between  the  temporal  and  the  spir 
itual  powers.  And  thus  wisely  had  Itzacoatl  govern 
ed  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign.  But  as  age  stolo 
upon  him — and  he  now  was  a  very  old  man — his  rule 
had  grown  more  and  more  tyrannical.  He  had  drawn 
about  him  certain  priests  for  intimate  advisers,  and 
these  constantly  led  him  to  run  counter  to  the  will  of 
the  Twenty  Lords,  not  only  in  matters  about  which 


THE    SEEDS    OF   EEVOLT.  223 

divergent  opinions  reasonably  might  be  held,  but  in 
matters  wherein  the  will  of  the  whole  people  was  at 
one  with  the  advice  that  the  Council  gave.  Thus, 
gradually,  two  parties  were  built  up  within  the  State : 
that  of  the  priests,  which  strongly  seconded  the  dispo 
sition  that  Itzacoatl  manifested  to  make  the  spiritual 
power  absolutely  supreme,  and  that  of  the  nobles  and 
people  of  the  higher  class,  which  sought  to  maintain 
the  Council's  ancient  rights  in  matters  temporal.  In 
regard  to  these  two  factions,  the  affiliations  of  the 
army  were  so  nicely  balanced  that  neither  side  vent 
ured  to  resort  to  open  violence — for  each  dreaded  that 
the  other  would  turn  the  scale  against  it  by  invoking 
the  aid  of  the  servile  class.  Thus  it  was  that  the  de 
spised  Tlahuicos  actually  held  the  balance  of  power. 
Yet  of  this  fact,  Tizoc  declared — but  I  noticed  that 
just  here  there  was  a  curious  hesitancy  about  his 
speech,  as  though  he  knew  more  than  he  was  willing 
to  disclose — the  Tlahuicos  were  but  dimly  conscious; 
while  they  did  know  certainly  that  in  the  present  state 
of  affairs  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  rise  in  mutiny 
would  be  met,  as  it  had  been  met  many  times  in  the 
past,  by  all  the  forces  of  both  factions  of  their  superi 
ors  overwhelmingly  united  against  them. 

But  the  bond  that  was  stronger  than  all  others  in 
holding  together  this  community,  in  which,  beneath  the 
surface,  were  working  such  potent  elements  of  disinte 
gration,  was  the  loyal  resolve  pervading  it  to  execute  the 
mission  to  which  its  members  were  destined  when  they 
were  set  apart  from  the  remainder  of  their  race  a  thou 
sand  years  before.  Excepting  only  among  the  Tlahu- 


224  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

icos — who,  in  the  nature  of  things,  could  have  no  share 
in  it — there  had  ever  been  among  all  classes  a  fervent 
longing  for  the  summons  that  should  call  them  forth 
to  aid  their  brethren  in  the  battling  with  a  foreign  foe 
that  Chaltzantzin  had  prophesied.  And  by  reason  of 
this  loyalty  to  a  lofty  purpose  the  open  rupture  that 
assuredly  otherwise  would  have  come  had  been  thus 
far  restrained.  Honor  forbade,  Tizoc  declared,  that  by 
falling  to  warring  among  themselves  they  should  put 
in  jeopardy  their  power  to  respond  instantly  to  the 
summons  that  might  at  any  instant  come. 

It  was  therefore  with  a  profound  and  solemn  interest 
— for  the  grave  import  of  it  was  plain  to  him — that  Ti 
zoc,  having  ended  his  own  statement,  questioned  us  as 
to  the  full  meaning  of  the  words  which  we  had  spoken 
when  first  we  entered  the  valley :  that  the  prophecy  of 
Chaltzantzin  long  since  had  been  fulfilled,  and  that 
now,  having  in  its  appointed  time  miscarried,  the  sum 
mons  would  never  come. 

With  awe,  and  in  sorrowful  silence,  he  listened  as 
Fray  Antonio  and  I  told  him  how  exactly  the  proph 
ecy  had  been  verified  by  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  by  their  conquest  and  enslavement  of  the  Mexi 
cans  ;  yet  was  he  cheered  again  as  our  narrative  con 
tinued,  and  he  learned  of  the  brave  fight  for  freedom 
that  his  brethren  had  made,  and  of  the  happy  success 
that  had  crowned  it  in  the  end.  Of  the  period  between 
the  achievement  of  independence  and  recent  years  we 
said  but  little — it  is  not  a  period  of  which  those  whose 
feeling  towards  the  Mexicans  is  friendly  have  much 
desire  to  talk — contenting  ourselves  with  emphasizing 


THE    SEEDS    OP    REVOLT.  225 

the  fact  that  the  race  so  long  oppressed,  having  risen 
successfully  against  its  oppressors,  remained  indepen 
dent  under  a  ruler  of  its  own  blood. 

To  that  part  of  our  narrative  in  which  we  told  how 
we  had  gained  knowledge  of  the  hidden  city  of  Col- 
huacan,  and  possession  of  the  token  of  summons,  Tizoc 
gave  but  little  heed.  It  was  evident  that  his  mind  was 
engrossed  with  consideration  of  the  more  important 
matters  of  which  we  had  told  him,  and  of  the  direct 
bearing  that  they  had  upon  the  troubled  condition  of 
affairs  in  which  his  own  people  were  involved.  Seeing 
which,  we  left  him  to  his  own  thoughts  while  we  talked 
of  these  same  matters  among  ourselves. 

Rayburn,  in  his  quick,  clear-headed  way,  grasped  the 
situation  promptly  and  accurately.  "About  the  size 
of  it  is,"  he  said,  "  that  we've  knocked  the  false  work 
right  from  under  everything  that  these  folks  have  been 
building  for  the  whole  thousand  years  that  they  have 
been  living  here ;  and  what  they've  built  isn't  strong 
enough  to  stand  alone.  As  Young  says,  it's  a  cold  day 
for  the  Priest  Captain  because  we  have  got  hold  of  his 
boss  miracle  ;  but  it's  still  colder  weather  for  him  be 
cause  the  news  that  we  have  brought  makes  it  all  right 
for  the  crowd  that  wants  to  fight  him  to  go  right  ahead 
and  do  it ;  and  I  guess  they  will  do  it,  too,  as  soon  as 
they  get  the  fact  fairly  into  their  heads  that  there  no 
longer  is  a  chance  of  their  being  called  off  in  the  mid 
dle  of  their  row.  Unless  I  am  very  much  mistaken, 
we  shall  see  some  pretty  lively  times  in  this  valley  in 
side  of  the  next  thirty  days." 

"  And  unless  JTm  mistaken,"  Young  struck  in,  "  tlr 
15 


226  THE    AZTEC   TEEASUEE-HOUSE. 

Colonel  here  will  be  about  th'  first  man  t'  take  off  his 
coat — that  is,  th'  thing  that  I  suppose  he  thinks  is  a 
coat — an'  sail  in.  I  don't  know  just  what  he's  got 
against  th'  Priest  Captain,  except  that  he  seems  t'  be 
a  sort  of  pill  on  gen'ral  principles,  but  I'm  sure  that 
he's  down  on  him  from  th'  word  go.  From  what  th' 
Colonel  says,  I  judge  that  his  crowd  has  a  pretty  good 
chance  of  comin'  out  on  top— for  th'  other  crowd 
seems  t'  be  made  up  for  th'  most  part  of  parsons  ;  an' 
parsons,  as  a  rule,  haven't  much  fight  in  'em.  What 
we'd  better  do  is  t'  tie  t'  th'  Colonel,  an'  when  we've 
helped  him  an'  his  friends  t'  wallop  th'  other  fellows 
they'll  be  so  much  obliged  to  us  that  they'll  let  us  bag 
all  th'  treasure  we  want  an'  clear  out.  An'  that  re 
minds  me,  Professor — we  haven't  heard  anything  about 
any  treasure  so  far.  Just  ask  th'  Colonel  if  there  real 
ly  is  one.  If  there  isn't,  I  vote  for  pullin'  out  before 
th'  row  begins.  It's  as  true  of  a  fight  as  it  is  of  a  rail 
road — that  runnin'  it  just  for  th'  operatin'  expenses 
don't  pay. 

Tizoc  answered  my  question  on  this  head  somewhat 
absently,  for  he  evidently  was  debating  within  himself 
some  very  serious  matter  ;  but  his  answer  was  of  a  sort 
that  Young  found  entirely  satisfactory.  In  the  heart 
of  the  city,  he  said,  was  the  Treasure-house  that  Chalt- 
zantzin  had  builded  there ;  and  within  it  the  treasure 
remained  that  Chaltzantzin  had  stored  away.  What 
it  consisted  of,  nor  the  value  of  it,  he  could  not  tell. 
The  Treasure-house  was  also  the  Great  Temple ;  and 
of  the  treasure  only  the  Priest  Captain  had  accurate 
knowledge.  In  the  Treasure-house,  Tizoc  added,  was 


THE    SEEDS    OF    REVOLT.  227 

stored  the  tribute  that  the  people  paid  annually,  and 
the  metal  that  was  taken  from  the  great  mine.  This 
metal  was  the  most  precious  of  all  their  possessions,  he 
said,  for  from  it  their  arms  were  made,  and  also  their 
tools  for  tilling  the  earth,  and  for  working  wood  and 
stone.  It  had  not  always  been  of  such  value,  for  it 
naturally  was  too  soft  to  serve  these  useful  purposes ; 
but  at  a  remote  period,  until  which  time  their  imple 
ments  had  been  made  of  stone,  a  wise  man  among  them 
had  discovered  a  way  by  which  it  could  be  hardened, 
and  from  that  time  onward  the  people  dwelling  in  the 
valley  had  prospered  greatly,  because  they  thus  were 
enabled  to  practise  all  manner  of  useful  arts. 

"And  what  is  this  metal  like  ?"  I  asked,  with  much 
interest,  for  my  archaeological  instinct  instantly  was 
aroused  by  hearing  summed  in  these  few  words  a  mat 
ter  of  such  momentous  importance,  as  the  transition  of 
a  people  to  the  age  of  metal  from  the  age  of  stone. 

"  It  is  like  this,"  Tizoc  answered,  simply,  disengaging 
as  he  spoke  a  heavy  bracelet  from  his  arm,  "  only  this 
remains  in  its  natural  state  of  softness.  To  be  of  great 
value  it  first  must  be  made  hard." 

I  had  no  doubt  in  my  own  mind  as  to  what  this 
metal  was,  but  I  knew  that  Rayburn,  who  was  an  ex 
cellent  metallurgist,  could  pronounce  upon  it  authori 
tatively. 

"  Is  this  gold  ?"  I  asked,  handing  him  the  bracelet. 

"  Certainly  it  is,"  he  answered,  in  a  moment — "  and 
it  seems  to  be  entirely  without  alloy." 

"Then  your  guess  about  the  bright,  hard  metal  that 
has  been  niich  a  puzzle  to  UP,"  I  continued,  "was  t.j)^ 


228  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

right  one ;  it  is  hardened  gold :"  and  I  repeated  to 
him  what  Tizoc  had  told  me. 

Rayburn  was  deeply  interested.  "  Scientifically,  this 
is  a  big  thing,  Professor,"  he  said.  "  These  fellows 
can  give  points  to  our  metallurgists.  But  for  our  pur 
poses,  of  course,  what  they've  caught  on  to  here  has 
no  practical  value.  Gold  has  got  to  come  down  a 
good  deal,  or  phosphor-bronze  has  got  to  go  up  a  good 
deal,  before  it  will  pay  us  to  turn  gold  dollars  into 
axle-bearings  and  cogs  and  pinions.  But  it's  mighty 
interesting,  all  the  same.  Fusing  with  silicium  would 
give  a  gold-silicide  that  might  fill  the  bill  for  hard 
ness;  but  I  can't  even  make  a  guess  as  to  how  they  do 
the  tempering.  Ask  the  Colonel  what  the  whole  proc 
ess  is,  Professor.  It  will  make  a  capital  paper  to  read 
before  the  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers  at  their  next 
meeting." 

As  I  turned  to  Tizoc  to  ask  this  question,  I  per 
ceived  that  his  regard  was  fixed  upon  something  on 
the  other  side  of  the  court-yard,  and  in  his  look  most 
tender  love  was  blended  with  a  deep  melancholy. 
Following  the  direction  of  his  gaze,  I  saw  that  its  ob 
ject  was  a  beautiful  boy,  a  lad  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  old,  who  was  half  hidden  behind  some  flowering 
shrubs,  and  from  this  cover  was  peering  at  us  curi 
ously. 

"It  is  my  Maza  —  my  little  son,"  Tizoc  said,  as  he 
turned  and  saw  the  direction  in  which  I  looked.  And 
then  he  called  to  the  boy  to  come  to  him.  For  a  mo 
ment  Maza  hesitated,  but  when  the  call  was  repeated 
he  came  out  from  behind  the  screen  of  flowers  and  so 


THE  PRIEST  CAPTAIN'S  SUMMONS.  229 

towards  us  across  the  court-yard ;  and  as  he  advanced 
I  perceived  that  he  was  lame.  In  his  face  was  the 
look  of  wistfulness  which  cripples  so  often  have,  and 
there  was  a  rare  sweetness  and  intelligence  in  the  ex 
pression  of  his  large  brown  eyes.  In  a  moment  I  un 
derstood  why  it  was  that  Tizoc  resented  so  bitterly 
the  abrogation  by  the  Priest  Captain  of  the  custom 
that  had  permitted  parents  to  buy  back  their  crippled 
children,  and  so  to  save  them  from  slavery;  and  a  self 
ish  feeling  of  gladness  came  into  my  heart  as  this  light 
dawned  upon  me — for  I  knew  that  when  we  faced  the 
danger  that  threatened  us  (a  most  real  danger,  for  our 
coming  into  the  valley  was  nothing  less  than  a  deadly 
blow  at  ItzacoatPs  supremacy)  we  surely  would  find  in 
Tizoc  an  ally  and  a  friend. 


XX. 


THERE  was  so  much  meaning  in  my  look  as  I  turned 
towards  Tizoc  that  I  had  no  need  to  speak ;  he  knew 
that  I  had  comprehended  the  situation,  and  so  answer 
ed  my  look  in  words. 

"Do  you  wonder  that  I  rejoice  over  your  coming, 
and  over  the  news  which  you  bring?  The  will  of  the 
gods  no  longer  is  that  we  shall  do  the  work  for  which 
our  lord  Chaltzantzin  destined  us ;  therefore  are  we 
free  to  set  aside  the  custom  that  he  decreed  by  which 
our  weak  ones  are  condemned  to  death,  and  with  it  the 


230  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

custom,  yet  more  cruel,  of  our  own  devising,  by  which 
they  are  saved  from  death  only  that  they  may  be  made 
slaves.  To  my  boy  neither  slavery  nor  death  shall  come. 
Through  you  the  gods  have  spoken,  and  he  is  saved. 
And  now  also  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy  that  of  ancient 
times  was  spoken,  that  with  the  coming  into  the  Val 
ley  of  Aztlan  of  a  four-footed  beast,  bearing  upon  its 
back  a  man,  the  power  of  the  Priest  Captain  should 
end." 

Much  more,  doubtless,  Tizoc  would  have  said  to  us, 
for  an  exalted  emotion  stirred  him  ;  but  at  that  mo 
ment  there  was  the  sound  of  hurrying  feet  in  the  outer 
enclosure,  and  then  Tizoc's  secretary  came  through  the 
narrow  entrance  into  the  court-yard,  followed  closely 
by  a  detachment  of  the  guards.  The  secretary  spoke 
hurriedly  to  his  master,  apart  from  us,  and  from  his  ex 
cited  manner  in  speaking,  and  from  the  anxious  look 
upon  his  master's  face  as  he  listened,  we  inferred  that 
some  very  stirring  matter  was  involved  in  the  com 
munication  that  he  brought. 

For  a  few  moments  Tizoc  stood  in  silence,  his  head 
bowed,  as  though  engaged  in  earnest  thought.  Then 
he  turned  to  us  and  spoke.  "  The  Priest  Captain  has 
sent  his  order  that  you  shall  be  brought  before  him,"  he 
said,  "  and  that  you  must  go  hence  without  delay."  And 
then  he  added,  taking  me  aside  and  speaking  in  a  low 
voice :  "  There  is  great  commotion  already  in  the  city, 
for  the  soldiers  have  noised  abroad  the  news  which 
you  bring.  The  Council  of  the  Twenty  Lords  has  been 
called  together,  and  I  am  told  that  a  messenger  from 
the  Council  is  on  his  way  hither.  That  my  order  to  take 


THE  PBIEST  CAPTAIN'S  SUMMONS.  233 

you  to  the  city  in  such  haste,  and  directly  to  the  Priest 
Captain,  is  so  stringent,  I  cannot  but  think  is  caused 
by  his  desire  to  get  you  hence  before  the  messenger 
from  the  Council  shall  arrive.  His  purpose  towards 
you  surely  is  an  evil  one  ;  but  fear  not— you  bring  a 
message  of  freedom  and  deliverance  that  has  only  to  be 
published  to  raise  around  you  a  host  of  friends.  And 
now  we  must  go." 

In  a  few  moments  we  had  quitted  Tizoc's  house,  pass 
ed  out  through  the  fortified  gate-way  in  the  heavy  wall 
by  which  the  little  plateau  on  the  mountain  side  was  de 
fended;  and  so,  by  a  broad  road  that  descended  sharp 
ly,  went  downward  towards  the  border  of  the  lake. 
Our  order  of  march  was  the  same  as  that  adopted  in 
bringing  us  from  the  Barred  Pass  :  before  us  and  be 
hind  us  were  detachments  of  the  guards,  and  Tizoc 
walked  with  us.  In  accordance  with  his  desire,  that 
he  expressed  to  me  in  a  cautious  whisper,  Pablo  rode 
upon  El  Sabio's  back.  There  was  no  need  for  him  to 
explain  his  motive  in  making  this  suggestion.  It  was 
his  purpose,  evidently,  to  exhibit  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy  as  conspicuously  as  possible,  and  so  to  prepare 
the  ground  for  the  sowing  of  the  seeds  of  revolt. 

I  had  an  opportunity  now  to  tell  Rayburn  and  Young 
of  what  Tizoc  had  been  speaking  at  the  moment  when 
the  summons  from  the  Priest  Captain  came  ;  and  also 
of  the  strong  personal  reason  that  he  had  for  protect 
ing  us,  even  to  the  extent  of  forwarding  the  outbreak 
of  revolution,  in  his  desire  to  save  from  death  or  sla 
very  the  son  whom  he  so  well  loved. 

"I'm  not  at  all  surprised  to  hear  that  what  we've 


232  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

told  'em  is  going  to  start  a  revolution,"  Rayburn  said. 
"  That's  just  the  way  I  sized  the  matter  up,  you  know, 
as  soon  as  I  got  down  to  the  first  facts.  If  they'd  had 
a  decent  sort  of  a  fellow  at  the  head  of  things,  they 
might  have  worked  along  so  as  to  take  a  fresh  start 
without  fighting  over  it.  But  this  Priest  Captain  chap 
isn't  that  kind.  He  goes  in  for  Boss  management  and 
machine  politics,  I  should  judge  from  what  the  Colonel 
says,  as  straight  as  if  he  was  a  New  York  alderman  or 
the  chairman  of  a  State  campaign  committee  in  Ohio. 
No  doubt  he's  got  a  pretty  big  crowd  back  of  him  ; 
but  that  kind  of  a  crowd  don't  amount  to  much  in  a 
fight,  when  there's  any  sort  of  a  show  for  the  other 
side  to  win.  It  sort  of  gets  out  of  the  way,  and  stands 
around  with  water  on  both  shoulders,  and  then,  when 
one  side  begins  to  get  pretty  well  on  top  —  it  don't 
matter  which  —  it  says  that  that's  the  side  it's  been 
fighting  with  all  along,  and  begins  to  kick  the  fellows 
that  are  down.  Where  our  chance  comes  in  is  in  hav 
ing  the  respectable  element,  the  solid  men  who  pay 
taxes  and  have  an  interest  in  decent  government,  to 
tie  to.  They  may  not  pay  taxes  here,  but  that's  the 
kind  I  mean.  And  that  kind,  when  it  takes  to  fight 
ing,  fights  hard.  Then  there  must  be  a  lot  of  fathers 
with  crippled  children,  like  the  Colonel  here,  who  are 
down  on  the  Priest  Captain  the  worst  kind,  and  will  be 
only  too  glad  of  a  chance  to  go  for  him;  and  they  can 
be  counted  on  to  stand  in  with  us,  and  to  fight  harder 
than  anybody.  I'll  admit,  Professor,  that  we're  in  a 
pretty  tight  place;  but  it  might  be  a  good  deal  tighter, 
and  I  do  honestly  believe  that  we'll  get  out  of  it." 


THE  PRIEST  CAPTAIN'S  SUMMONS.  233 

"And  so  do  I,"  said  Young,  "'specially  now  that  I 
know  that  that  burro  of  Pablo's  is  part  of  a  prophecy. 
I  always  did  think  that  there  was  style  about  El  Sabio, 
any  way,  an'  now  I  know  what  it  comes  from.  When  I 
was  a  boy,  th'  one  thing  that  used  t'  keep  me  quiet  in 
church  was  hearin'  our  minister  read  that  story  about 
Balaam  and  his  burro;  but  I  never  thought  then  that  I\l 
actually  ketch  up  with  a  live  ass  that  was  in  the  proph- 
esyin'  line  of  business  for  itself  —  or  had  prophecies 
made  about  it,  which  is  pretty  much  the  same  thing. 
T'  be  sure,  this  prophecy  don't  come  down  t'  dots 
quite  as  much  as  I'd  like  it  to ;  but  I  s'pose  that  that's 
th'  way  with  'em  always — eh,  Professor?  Th'  proph 
ets  sort  o'  leave  things  at  loose  ends  on  purpose ;  so's 
they  can  run  '  wild '  on  a  clear  track,  without  any  bother 
about  schedule  time  or  connections." 

"Well,  our  burro  lays  over  Balaam's,"  Rayburn 
struck  in.  "In  that  case  it  took  the  combined  argu 
ments  of  an  ass  and  an  angel  to  convince  Balaam  that 
he  was  off  about  his  location,  and  was  running  his 
lines  all  wrong;  but,  unless  we  count  in  Pablo,  El  Sabio 
is  playing  a  lone  hand  ;  and  I'm  sure  that  the  Colonel's 
not  fooling  us  about  this  prophecy  business,  either.  It's 
rubbish,  of  course ;  but  that  don't  matter,  so  long  as 
the  people  here  swallow  it  for  the  genuine  thing.  Just 
look  at  that  old  fellow  there.  He's  tumbled  to  it,  and 
he's  regularly  knocked  out." 

We  were  close  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  by  this  time, 
and  as  Rayburn  spoke  we  were  passing  a  small  house, 
in  front  of  which  was  gathered  a  group  of  Indians.  In 
the  midst  of  the  group  was  a  very  old  man,  who  with 


234  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

out-stretched  arm  was  pointing  towards  Pablo  and  El 
Sabio,  and  who  at  the  same  time  was  talking  to  his 
companions  in  grave  and  earnest  tones.  There  was  a 
look  of  awe  upon  his  age-worn  face,  and  as  we  fairly 
came  abreast  of  him  he  dropped  upon  his  knees  and 
raised  his  arms  above  his  head,  as  though  in  supplica 
tion  to  some  higher  power.  The  action,  truly,  was  a 
most  impressive  one;  and  even  more  strongly  than  we 
were  affected  by  it  did  it  affect  those  who  were  clus 
tered  around  him.  In  a  moment  all  in  the  group  had 
fallen  upon  their  knees  and  had  raised  their  arms  up 
ward;  and  then  a  low  moaning,  that  presently  grew 
louder  and  more  thrilling,  broke  forth  among  them  as 
they  gave  vent  to  the  feeling  of  awful  dread  that  was 
in  their  hearts. 

"  That's  business,  that  is,"  Young  said,  in  tones  of 
great  satisfaction.  "  Those  fellows  do  believe  in  th' 
prophecy,  for  a  fact;  and  if  th'  folks  once  get  it  fairly 
into  their  heads  that  th'  time  has  come  for  their  ras 
cally  Priest  Captain  t'  have  an  upset,  that's  a  good 
long  start  for  our  side  towards  upsettin'  him.  It  was 
just  everlastin'ly  level-headed  in  th'  Colonel  t'  make 
Pablo  ride  El  Sabio,  and  so  regularly  cram  th'  thing 
down  these  critters'  throats.  I  don't  know  how  much 
of  th'  prophecy  he  believes  himself,  but  he's  workin' 
it  for  all  it's  worth,  any  way.  There  don't  seem  t'  be 
any  flies  worth  speakin'  of  on  th'  Colonel — eh,  Pro 
fessor?  And  I  guess  that  anybody  who  wants  t'  get 
up  earlier  'n  th'  mornin'  than  he  does  '11  have  to  make 
a  start  overnight." 

By  this  time  the  road  that  we  followed  had  come 


THE    PJRIEST    CAPTAIN'S    SUMMONS.  235 

down  to  the  lake-level,  and  presently  we  reached  the 
end  of  it,  which  was  a  well-built  pier  that  extended 
out  from  the  shelving  shore  into  deep  water.  Here  a 
boat  was  in  waiting  for  us — a  barge  of  near  forty  feet 
in  length,  with  twenty  men  to  row  it,  and  carrying  also 
a  mast,  stepped  well  forward,  so  rigged  as  to  spread  a 
sail  that  was  a  compromise  between  a  lug  and  a  lateen. 
There  was  some  little  talk  between  the  officer  in  charge 
of  the  barge  and  Tizoc,  and  then  the  latter  motioned 
us  to  go  on  board.  The  barge-master  gave  the  order 
to  the  guard  to  follow  us,  as  though  the  command  of 
the  party  now  had  devolved  upon  him;  and  it  seemed 
to  us,  from  the  close  group  that  the  guard  made  around 
us  in  the  boat,  and  from  the  anxious  looks  which  the 
barge-master  cast  upon  us,  that  very  strict  orders  must 
have  been  given  concerning  keeping  us  closely  in  ward. 
Under  these  circumstances,  it  caused  us  some  little 
wonder  that  we  were  permitted  to  retain  our  arms, 
until  the  thought  occurred  to  me  that  these  people, 
having  no  knowledge  of  such  things,  did  not  at  all 
realize  that  our  rifles  and  revolvers  were  arms  at  all. 
To  test  which  theory  I  drew  one  of  my  pistols  —  not 
violently,  but  as  though  this  were  something  that  I  was 
doing  for  my  own  convenience — and  so  held  it  in  my 
hands  that  the  muzzle  was  pointed  directly  at  the  heart 
of  the  soldier  who  sat  beside  me  ;  yet  beyond  the  in 
terest  that  its  odd  shape,  and  the  strange  metal  that  it 
was  made  of  aroused  in  him,  it  was  evident  that  the 
man  regarded  my  action  entirely  without  concern.  I 
drew  the  attention  of  Rayburn  and  Young  to  what  I 
was  doing,  and  to  how  evident  it  was  that  fire-arms 


236  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

were  unknown  to  this  people ;  and  in  their  ignorance 
we  found  much  cause  for  satisfaction. 

"If  they  don't  know  enough  to  corral  our  guns," 
Young  said,  "we've  got  a  pretty  good-sized  piece  of 
dead-wood  on  'em.  Th'  way  things  are  goin',  we  may 
have  a  rumpus  a'most  any  time,  I  s'pose;  and  if  it  does 
come  to  a  rumpus,  they'll  be  a  badly  struck  lot  when 
we  open  on  'em.  Robinson  Crusoe  cleaned  out  a  whole 
outfit  of  Indians  with  just  an  old  flint-lock  musket; 
and  I  should  say  that  we'd  simply  paralyze  this  crowd 
when  we  all  get  goin'  at  once  with  our  revolvers  an' 
Winchesters.  Isn't  that  your  idea  of  it,  Rayburn  ?" 

But  Rayburn  did  not  answer,  for  while  Young  was 
speaking  he  had  taken  out  his  field-glass  and  was  ex 
amining  the  city,  to  within  three  or  four  miles  of  which 
we  now  were  come.  "  Well,  that  is  a  walled  city,  and 
no  mistake !"  he  said,  as  he  lowered  the  glass  from  his 
eyes.  "  Take  a  look,  Professor.  These  people  may  be 
easy  to  fool  when  it  comes  to  prophecies,  but  when  it 
comes  to  engineering  and  architecture  they're  sound 
all  the  way  through.  Just  look  at  the  straightness  of 
that  wall  running  up  the  hill,  and  how  exact  the  align 
ment  is  of  the  two  parts  above  and  below  that  ledge  of 
rocks.  They  had  to  get  that  alignment,  you  know,  by 
taking  fore-sights  and  back-sights  from  the  top  of  the 
ledge ;  and  I  must  say  that  for  people  who  haven't  got 
far  enough  along  in  civilization  to  wear  trousers,  it's 
an  uncommonly  pretty  piece  of  work." 

As  I  iQoked  through  the  glass  I  was  less  impressed 
by  this  technical  detail,  involving  the  overcoming  of 
engineering  difficulties  which  I  did  not  very  thoroughly 


237 

understand,  than  I  was  by  the  majestic  effect  produced 
by  the  city  as  a  whole,  in  conjunction  with  the  site  on 
which  it  was  reared.  At  this  point  the  lake  came  close 
up  to  the  vastly  high  cliffs  by  which  the  valley  every 
where  was  girt  in,  and  here  jutted  out  from  the  cliff  a 
great  promontory  of  rock,  whereof  the  highest  part  was 
fully  two  hundred  feet  above  the  lake-level.  For  the 
accommodation  of  the  houses  which  everywhere  were 
built  upon  it,  the  sloping  face  of  this  promontory  had 
been  cut  into  broad  terraces,  of  which  the  facings  were 
massive  walls  of  stone ;  and  the  whole  was  enclosed  by 
a  wall  of  great  height  and  enormous  thickness  that 
swept  out  in  an  immense  semicircle  from  the  face  of 
the  cliff,  and  thus  shut  in  the  terraced  promontory  and 
also  a  considerable  area  of  level  land  at  the  base  of  it 
between  the  lowest  terrace  and  the  margin  of  the  lake. 
On  the  highest  terrace,  crowning  and  dominating 
the  whole,  was  a  majestic  building  that  seemed  to  be 
half  temple  and  half  fort — a  square  structure,  resting 
solidly  against  the  face  of  the  cliff,  and  thence  project 
ing  a  long  way  outward  to  where  its  fa9ade  was  flank 
ed  by  two  low,  heavy,  square  towers.  Architecturally, 
this  building,  unlike  any  other  of  which  I  had  knowl 
edge  in  Mexico,  saving  only  the  temple  that  we  had 
found  upon  the  lonely  mountain-top,  was  pervaded  by 
a  distinctly  Egyptian  sentiment.  Its  walls  sloped  in 
ward  from  their  bases,  and  no  trivial  nor  fretful  lines 
weakened  the  effect  of  their  massive  dignity;  for  the 
whole  of  the  decoration  upon  them  was  a  broad  panel 
ling  that  was  gained  by  a  combination  of  heavy  pilas 
ters  and  a  heavy  cornice ;  and  with  the  exception  of 


238  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

a  central  entrance,  the  front  was  unbroken  by  openings 
of  any  kind.  Possessing  these  characteristics,  the  build 
ing  had  about  it  an  air  of  solemnity  that  bordered 
closely  upon  gloom ;  and  the  obvious  solidity  of  its 
construction  was  such  that  it  seemed  destined  to  last 
on  through  all  coming  ages  in  defiance  of  the  assaults 
of  time.  There  was  no  need  for  me  to  question  Tizoc  ; 
for  I  knew  that  what  I  beheld  before  me,  crowning 
with  sombre  grandeur  this  strange  city,  girded  with 
such  prodigious  walls,  was  the  Treasure-house  that 
Chaltzantzin,  the  Aztec  King,  had  builded  in  the  dim 
dawning  of  a  most  ancient  past. 

Young  took  his  turn  in  looking  through  the  glass, 
and  as  he  handed  it  to  Fray  Antonio  he  said:  "If  at 
any  time  in  th'  course  o'  th'  past  few  weeks,  Pro 
fessor,  you've  got  th'  notion  from  any  o'  my  talk  that 
I  thought  that  dead  friend  o'  yours,  th'  old  monk,  was 
a  liar,  I  want  t'  take  it  all  back ;  and  I  want  t'  take 
back  all  that  I've  said  about  that  other  dead  friend 
o'  yours,  th'  Cacique,  havin'  set  up  a  job  on  us.  It's 
clear  enough  now  that  both  o'  your  friends  played 
an  entirely  square  game.  They  said  that  there  was  a 
walled  city,  an'  there  it  is ;  they  said  that  there  was 
a  big  Treasure-house,  an'  there  that  is.  They  were 
perfect  gentlemen,  Professor,  and  I  want  t'  set  myself 
right  on  th*  record  by  sayin'  so.  If  one  of  'em  hadn't 
been  dead  for  more  than  three  months,  and  if  th'  other 
one  hadn't  been  dead  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years,  and  if  they  both  were  here,  I'd  knuckle  umler 
and  ask  'em  t'  take  my  hat." 


THE    WALLED    CITY    OF    CULHUACAN.  239 


XXL 

THE    WALLED    CITY    OF   CULHUACAN. 

OUR  use  in  turn  of  the  field-glass  was  a  mysterious 
performance  that  aroused  keenly  the  barge  -  master's 
curiosity.  I  heard  him  ask  Tizoc  for  an  explanation 
of  it ;  and  Tizoc,  who  also  was  much  interested,  re 
ferred  his  question  to  me.  Had  I  been  dealing  with 
Tizoc  alone  I  should  have  tried  to  make  the  matter 
clear  to  him  ;  but  in  the  case  of  the  barge  -  master, 
whose  feeling  towards  us,  I  was  convinced,  was  any 
thing  but  friendly,  I  thought  it  wiser  to  be  less  frank. 
Therefore,  covering  the  action  with  a  negligent  motion 
of  my  hand,  I  screwed  the  glasses  close  together,  so 
that  in  looking  through  them  there  was  to  be  seen 
only  a  mass  of  indistinct  objects  looming  up  in  a 
blurred  cloud  of  light,  and  so  handed  them  to  him. 
Naturally,  neither  he  nor  Tizoc  arrived  at  any  very 
satisfactory  conclusion  in  regard  to  the  real  use  of 
them ;  and  from  their  talk  it  was  evident  that  they 
conceived  the  ceremony  in  which  we  had  engaged  in 
turn  so  earnestly  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  prayer  to  our 
gods.  Fray  Antonio  was  both  shocked  and  pained  by 
their  taking  this  view  of  the  matter,  and  was  for  mak 
ing  a  true  explanation  to  them ;  but  at  my  urgent  re 
quest  he  held  his  peace.  Yet  it  was  evident  that  he 


240  THE    AZTEC   TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

brooded  over  the  matter  in  his  mind,  and  so  was  led 
to  earnest  thoughts  of  the  mission  that  had  brought 
him  hither  into  the  Valley  of  Aztlan.  Therefore  was  I 
not  surprised — though  I  certainly  was  alarmed  by  the 
thought  of  what  might  be  its  consequences  —  when 
presently,  in  low  and  gentle  tones,  he  began  to  speak 
to  those  about  him  of  the  free  and  glorious  Christian 
faith,  which  in  all  ways  was  more  excellent  than  the 
cruel  idolatry  in  which  they  were  bound.  Naturally, 
he  was  not  permitted  long  to  speak  in  this  strain,  for 
the  barge-master  speedily  ordered  him  in  most  per 
emptory  tones  to  keep  silence ;  which  order  doubtless 
would  have  been  still  more  quickly  given  had  not  the 
officer  been  fairly  surprised  by  Fray  Antonio's  temerity 
into  momentary  forgetfulness  of  the  dangerous  out 
come  of  this  gentle  talk.  And  Fray  Antonio,  know 
ing  the  value  of  the  word  in  season  that  is  dropped  to 
fructify  in  soil  ready  for  it,  did  not  attempt  argument 
with  the  barge-master — by  which  the  thoughts  of  those 
who  listened  would  have  been  diverted  from  the  hope 
ful  promise  of  a  better  faith  that  he  had  offered  to 
them — but  obeyed  the  order  meekly  and  so  held  his 
peace.  That  what  he  had  spoken  had  taken  hold  upon 
the  hearts  of  some  at  least  among  his  hearers  I  was 
well  assured  by  their  grave  look  of  thoughtfulness, 
and  especially  did  Tizoc  seem  to  be  deeply  moved ; 
but — as  I  supposed  for  fear  of  the  barge-master — there 
was  no  open  comment  upon  what  had  passed. 

By  this  time,  the  barge  being  all  the  while  urged 
rapidly  forward  by  the  steady  strokes  of  the  twenty 
oarsmen,  the  city  rose  so  broadly  and  so  openly  before 


THE    WALLED    CITY    OF    CULHUACAN.  241 

us  that  we  could  see  the  whole  of  it  distinctly  with  our 
naked  eyes.  And  what  at  this  nearer  view  seemed 
most  impressive  about  it  was  its  gloominess  ;  that  was 
due  not  less  to  the  prison -like  effect  of  its  heavily 
built  houses  and  its  massive  walls  than  to  the  dull 
blackness  of  the  stone  whereof  these  same  were  made. 
Nowhere  was  there  sparkle,  or  glitter,  or  bright  color, 
or  brightness  of  any  sort  to  be  seen ;  and  it  seemed  to 
me,  as  I  gazed  upon  this  sombre  stronghold,  that  dwell 
ing  always  within  it  well  enough  might  wear  a  man's 
heart  out  with  a  consuming  melancholy  begotten  of  its 
cold  and  cheerless  tones. 

That  it  was  indeed  a  stronghold  was  the  more  ap 
parent  to  us  the  nearer  that  we  came  to  it.  The  plan 
of  it  was  that  of  a  great  fan,  spread  open  upon  the  hill 
side,  and  extending  also  across  the  broad  sweep  of 
level  land  between  the  base  of  the  promontory  and  the 
lake.  The  promontory  bad  been  so  cut  and  shaped 
that  its  gentle  slope  had  been  transformed  into  six 
broad  semicircular  terraces,  above  the  highest  of  which 
was  a  semicircular  plateau  of  very  considerable  size, 
on  which  stood  the  Treasure-house,  that  also  was  the 
great  temple.  Along  the  face  of  each  terrace,  and 
around  the  face  also  of  the  plateau,  a  heavy  defensive 
wall  rose  to  a  height  of  twenty  feet  or  more;  and  from 
the  base  of  the  crowning  plateau,  thence  accessible  by 
a  single  broad  flight  of  stairs — being  led  through  open 
ings  in  the  rampart  walls  of  the  terraces,  and  down  each 
terrace  face  by  means  of  stair-ways  —  twelve  streets 
descended,  of  which  the  central  six  ended  at  the  water 
side  and  the  remainder  against  the  great  outer  wall. 
16 


242  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

It  was  this  outer  line  of  strong  defence  that  gave  the 
city — which  otherwise  would  have  corresponded  curi 
ously  closely  with  the  fortified  city  of  Quetzaltepec, 
described  by  the  Mexican  chronicler  Tezozomoc — its 
most  distinctive  characteristic.  Such  a  vastly  thick 
wall,  for  the  great  length  of  it,  as  this  was  I  never 
have  seen  in  any  other  place ;  and  so  solid  was  the 
building  of  it  that  it  would  have  been  proof  against 
any  ordinary  train  of  siege  artillery.  For  defence 
against  a  foe  whose  only  missile  weapons  would  be 
javelins  and  slings  and  bows,  this  great  wall  made  the 
city  absolutely  impregnable.  And  that  the  protection 
that  it  gave  might  be  still  more  complete — and  also,  as 
Tizoc  explained  to  us,  that  in  the  case  of  siege  the  wa 
ter  supply  might  be  assured,  together  with  a  supply  of 
fish  for  food — the  wall  was  carried  out  into  the  lake  so 
far  as  to  enclose  a  basin  of  more  than  four  acres  in  ex 
tent;  within  which,  should  an  enemy  gain  access  to  the 
valley,  all  the  boats  upon  the  lake  could  be  brought 
together  and  held  in  safety.  And  finally,  the  one  en 
trance  to  the  city  was  by  way  of  a  tunnel-like  canal 
cut  in  the  wall  thus  rising  from  the  water ;  the  outer 
end  of  which  canal  was  closed  in  ordinary  times  by  a 
heavy  grating,  while  in  war  time  the  inner  end  also 
could  be  closed  by  means  of  great  metal  bars. 

It  was  towards  this  entrance  that  the  barge  that 
carried  us  was  heading.  Presently  we  reached  it,  and 
the  grating  was  raised  for  our  admission  by  means  of 
chains  which  were  operated  from  the  top  of  the  wall. 
So  low  and  so  narrow  was  the  passage  that  our  heads 
were  within  a  few  inches  of  the  huge  slabs  of  stone  of 


THE    WALLED    CITY    OP   CULHUACAN.  243 

which  its  roof  was  formed;  and  the  rowers  bad  need  to 
unstep  the  mast  and  then  to  lay  their  oars  inboard, 
while  they  brought  the  barge  through  by  pushing  with 
their  hands  against  the  roof  and  sides.  The  oanal  was 
fully  forty  feet  long,  and  thus  the  enormous  thick 
ness  of  the  wall  was  made  apparent  to  us.  It  truly 
was,  as  I  observed  to  Rayburn,  a  work  that  well  might 
be  attributed  to  the  Cyclops. 

"  I  never  met  a  live  Cyclop,  Professor,"  Rayburn  an 
swered,  "  and  I  don't  believe  that  these  fellows  ever  did 
either;  but  it  bothers  me  to  know  how  they  managed 
to  do  work  like  this  without  a  steam-derrick.  If  we 
get  out  of  here  with  whole  skins  and  our  hair  on  our 
heads,  I  hope  it  won't  be  until  I've  had  a  chance  to 
talk  to  some  of  their  engineers,  and  so  get  down  to  the 
facts." 

A  moment  later  we  emerged  from  the  tunnel  through 
the  wall,  and  so  entered  the  enclosed  basin  that  extend 
ed  along  the  whole  of  the  city's  front.  Within  the 
basin  were  lying  many  canoes,  and  also  boats  of  a 
larger  sort  that  carried  oars  and  that  were  rigged 
with  a  sort  of  lug-sail ;  but  these  all  kept  away  from 
us,  even  as  all  the  boats  which  we  had  seen  during  our 
passage  of  the  lake  had  given  us  a  wide  berth.  That 
our  barge — one  of  those  employed  exclusively  in  the 
Priest  Captain's  service — was  thus  shunned  was  due, 
as  I  found  later,  to  the  wholesome  dread  in  which  the 
special  servitors  of  the  temple  and  of  its  head  univer 
sally  were  held ;  for  these  very  frequently  abused  the 
authority  acquired  through  their  semi-sacerdotal  func- 
by  using  it  a§  ft  cloak  to  coyer  acts  of  purely 


244  THE    AZTEC   TEEASURE-HOUSE. 

sonal  oppression,  while  at  all  times  they  were  feared 
as  the  executors  of  their  master's  wrath.  There  was, 
indeed  (though  I  did  not  mention  this  fact  to  Fray 
Antonio),  a  curiously  close  resemblance  between  the 
officials  of  this  class  and  the  familiars  of  the  Inquisi 
tion,  both  in  the  duties  which  they  performed  and  in 
the  fear  and  hatred  which  they  everywhere  inspired. 

But  even  dread  of  entanglement  with  the  Priest 
Captain's  servants  could  not  restrain  the  curiosity  of 
the  crowd  that  pressed  towards  us  on  the  broad  pier 
upon  which  we  disembarked.  It  was  evident  that  this 
crowd  was  not  made  up  of  the  common  folk  of  the 
city,  and  also  that  it  was  moved  by  a  purpose  far 
higher  than  that  of  a  mere  idle  longing  to  see  some 
thing  that  was  strange.  From  their  dress,  and  still 
more  from  the  beauty  of  their  ornaments  and  the  ele 
gance  of  the  arms  which  many  of  them  carried,  it  was 
obvious  that  for  the  most  part  these  men  were  citi 
zens  of  the  highest  rank  ;  and  this  fact  was  still  fur 
ther  attested  by  the  dignity  of  their  demeanor  and  by 
the  reverent  age  to  which  the  majority  of  them  had 
attained.  So  far  from  manifesting  any  vulgar  excite 
ment,  the  crowd  maintained  an  absolute  silence ;  and 
with  this  an  exterior  air  of  calm  that  was  the  more  im 
pressive  because  the  eager,  almost  awe-struck  expres 
sion  upon  every  face  showed  how  strong  was.  the  emo 
tion  that  thus  strongly  was  restrained.  But  when  El 
Sabio,  after  much  coaxing,  crossed  the  gang-plank  be 
tween  the  boat  and  the  pier,  and  so  came  to  where  he 
could  be  seen  of  all  plainly,  there  was  a  curious  low 
sound  in  the  air  as  though  all  at  once  every  man  in 


THE    WALLED    CITY    OF   CULHUACAN.  245 

the  crowd  had  heaved  a  sigh  ;  and  the  sound  swelled 
into  a  loud  murmur  as  Pablo,  in  obedience  to  a  quick 
order  that  I  gave  him  in  Spanish,  briskly  mounted 
upon  the  ass's  back.  In  this  murmur  only  one  word 
was  intelligible,  and  that  I  caught  again  and  again  : 
the  prophecy  ! 

But  Pablo  was  no  more  than  fairly  seated  upon  El 
Sabio's  back  than  the  officer  in  command  of  our  guard 
took  him  roughly  by  the  shoulders  and  snatched  him 
thence  to  the  ground  again  ;  which  act  led  Tizoc  and 
me  to  a  quick  exchange  of  startled  glances,  for  it 
showed  very  plainly  that  the  Priest  Captain — to  whom 
the  messenger  telling  of  our  coming  into  the  valley 
had  been  sent  before  any  of  these  people  had  seen 
Pablo  mounted  upon  El  Sabio's  back — had  anticipated 
this  sign  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  and  had 
given  orders  to  prevent  it.  Luckily,  the  celerity  with 
which  Pablo  had  executed  my  quick  order  to  mount 
had  saved  the  day  for  us  ;  and  even  more  than  saved 
it,  for  as  we  passed  through  the  crowd,  on  our  way 
from  the  water-side  into  the  city,  I  caught  here  and 
there  fragments  of  comment  upon  what  had  just  passed 
which  showed  that  not  only  was  the  sign  told  of  in  the 
prophecy  recognized,  but  that  the  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  officer  to  neutralize  it  was  understood. 

But  before  our  going  into  the  city  there  was  a  stir 
ring  conflict  of  authority  concerning  us  between  the 
temporal  and  the  spiritual  powers.  We  were  no  more 
than  fairly  landed,  indeed,  when  an  officer  addressed 
the  barge  -  master,  who  continued  in  charge  of  our 
party,  and  gave  him  a  formal  order  to  bring  the  stran- 


246  THE  A2±Ec  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

gers  directly  before  the  Council  of  the  Twenty  Lords. 
And  to  this  the  barge-master  replied  that  he  already 
was  under  orders  to  bring  the  prisoners,  immediately 
upon  their  landing,  before  the  Priest  Captain  —  and 
there  was  something  both  curious  and  ominous,  it 
struck  me,  in  the  marked  manner  in  which  the  term 
"  strangers "  was  employed  by  one  of  these  men  and 
the  term  "  prisoners  "  by  the  other. 

At  this  juncture  we  had  further  proof  of  the  fore 
sight  of  the  Priest  Captain,  and  of  the  determined 
stand  that  he  was  prepared  to  make  rather  than  to 
suffer  the  miscarriage  of  his  plans.  While  the  barge- 
master  and  the  messenger  from  the  Council  still  were 
engaged  in  hot  talk  as  to  which  of  the  two  conflict 
ing  orders  should  be  recognized,  there  was  a  sound  of 
tramping  feet  and  of  arms  clanking ;  and  then  a  body 
of  fully  one  hundred  soldiers  came  quickly  out  from 
behind  a  house  that  was  near  by  the  water-side  and 
swept  down  on  a  double-quick  to  where  we  were  stand 
ing  at  the  end  of  the  pier.  The  crowd,  jostled  aside 
to  make  way  for  the  passage  of  the  soldiers,  evidently 
regarded  them  with  astonishment ;  and  this  astonish 
ment  rapidly  changed  to  anger  as  the  purpose  that 
brought  them  thither  was  made  plain.  In  a  moment 
they  had  closed  in  around  us,  separating  us  from  the 
Council's  messenger  and  from  Tizoc  ;  the  barge-master 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  them,  and  in  sharp,  quick 
tones  gave  the  order  to  march ;  and  the  whole  force, 
with  ourselves  in  the  centre  of  it,  went  off  the  pier  at  a 
round  pace,  and  thence  along  a  street  that  led  towards 
the  city's  heart.  Evidently  acting  under  orders,  the 


THE    WALLED    CITY    OF    CULHUACAN.  247 

men  broke  their  platoons  and  closed  in  around  us;  and 
I  was  well  convinced  that  this  unsoldierly  marching 
was  adopted  to  the  end  that  El  Sabio  might  not  be 
seen. 

Fray  Antonio  agreed  with  me  that  the  Priest  Cap 
tain  was  carrying  matters  with  a  dangerously  high 
hand  in  thus  opposing  the  will  of  the  Council  with 
armed  force.  This  act  of  his,  if  Tizoc  had  correctly 
represented  to  us  the  excited  condition  of  popular  feel 
ing,  was  quite  sufficient  in  itself  to  stir  into  violent 
activity  the  slumbering  fires  of  mutiny.  But  whether 
the  revolt  that  we  now  believed  must  surely  come 
would  come  in  time  to  be  of  service  to  ourselves,  we 
could  not  but  look  upon  as  a  very  open  question. 

"  If  this  old  scoundrel  is  as  sharp  as  he  seems  to 
be,"  Ray  burn  said,  "  and  if  he  keeps  things  up  in  the 
way  he's  begun,  it's  about  all  day  with  us.  His  play 
should  be  tc  get  rid  of  us  as  quick  as  he  can  manage 
it ;  and  I  should  judge,  from  the  cards  that  he's  put 
down,  that  that's  precisely  the  way  he  means  to  man 
age  the  game.  It's  not  much  comfort  to  us  to  know 
that  after  he's  cleaned  us  out  somebody  else  will  rake 
his  pile." 

As  we  talked,  we  went  on  rapidly  through  the  city; 
and  even  the  danger  that  we  were  in,  and  the  excite 
ment  that  attended  this  sudden  shifting  of  our  fort 
unes,  could  not  prevent  me  from  studying  with  a 
lively  curiosity  the  many  evidences  of  an  advanced 
civilization  that  I  beheld.  The  plan  of  the  city,  as  I 
had  discerned  while  we  were  approaching  it,  was  that 
of  a  wide-open  fan.  From  the  Treasure-house,  on  the 


248  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

height  in  the  centre,  twelve  broad  streets  radiated  out 
ward,  of  which  three  on  the  northern  side  and  three 
on  the  southern  ended  against  the  great  enclosing 
wall,  and  six  came  down  through  openings  in  the  walls 
along  the  several  terraces  directly  to  the  water-front. 
All  of  these  streets  were  well  paved  with  large  smooth 
blocks  of  stone,  and  were  led  up  the  faces  of  the  ter 
races  by  wide  and  easy  stairs.  The  transverse  streets 
were  true  semicircles,  starting  from  and  ending  at 
the  face  of  the  cliff,  and  were  carried  along  the 
outer  edges  of  the  terraces,  just  inside  their  facing 
walls.  Rayburn  was  even  more  astonished  than  I  was 
by  the  exactness  with  which  these  great  semicircles 
were  laid  off;  for  he  apprehended,  as  I  did  not,  the 
difficulty  attendant  upon  running  a  line  in  a  true  and 
regular  curve.  But  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  this 
work  could  not  have  been  accomplished  by  mere  rule 
of  thumb.  My  friend  Bandelier,  in  the  course  of  his 
admirable  analysis  of  the  ruins  at  Mitla,  has  made 
clear  to  me  how  easy  it  is  to  attribute  to  scientific 
knowledge  work  that  is  the  result  only  of  manual 
skill.  As  I  have  pointed  out  in  my  discussion  of  this 
matter  in  my  Pre-  Columbian  Conditions  on  the  Con 
tinent  of  North  America,  the  plateau  at  the  top  of  this 
range  of  terraces  easily  might  have  been  laid  off  in 
a  true  semicircle  by  the  simple  means  of  a  pointed 
stick  at  the  end  of  a  long  rope ;  and  from  the  true 
line  thus  established  the  line  of  the  terrace  below  it 
could  have  been  had — and  so  on  down  to  the  lowest 
terrace  of  all. 

There  could  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  engineering 


THE   \VALLED    CITY    OF   CULHUACAN.  249 

skill  of  a  high  order — howsoever  crude  might  have 
been  the  actual  method  of  its  application — was  exhib 
ited  both  in  the  preparation  of  the  site,  and  then  in 
the  city's  building.  On  the  site  alone  an  almost  in 
credible  amount  of  labor  had  been  expended;  for  the 
rocky  promontory  —  that  primitively,  as  the  result 
showed,  had  been  broken  and  irregular — had  been  so 
cut  away  in  some  places,  and  so  filled  in  in  others, 
and  the  whole  of  it  had  been  so  carefully  trimmed  and 
smoothed,  that  in  the  end  it  became  a  huge  mass  of 
rock- work,  in  the  regularity  of  which  there  was  not 
perceptible  the  smallest  flaw.  And  in  this  prelim 
inary  work,  as  well  as  in  the  building  of  the  houses 
afterwards,  fragments  of  stone  were  used  of  such 
enormous  size  that  the  moving  of  them,  Rayburn  de 
clared,  would  be  wellnigh  impossible  even  with  the 
most  powerful  engineering  appliances  of  our  own  time. 
Nor  was  the  use  of  these  huge  pieces  of  stone  confined 
to  the  foundations  of  the  houses.  Some  of  them  were 
high  above  the  ground ;  indeed,  the  very  largest  that 
we  observed — the  weight  of  which  Rayburn  estimated 
at  not  less  than  twenty  tons — was  a  single  block  that 
made  the  entire  top  course  of  a  high  wall. 

All  of  the  stone-work  was  well  smoothed  and  squared; 
and  while  the  exteriors  of  the  houses  were  entirely  plain, 
we  could  see  through  the  open  door-ways  that  the  inte 
riors  of  many  of  them  were  enriched  with  carvings.  All 
were  destitute  of  windows  opening  upon  the  street ; 
and  their  dull,  black  walls,  and  the  dull  black  of  the 
stones  with  which  the  streets  were  paved,  gave  a 
dark  and  melancholy  air  to  the  city  that  oppressed  us 


250  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

even  more  heavily  when  thus  seen  closely  than  it  had 
when  we  beheld  it  from  afar  off.  Yet  the  interior 
court-yards,  so  far  as  we  could  tell  from  the  glimpses 
that  we  had  of  them  through  open  door -ways,  were 
bright  with  sunshine  and  gay  with  flowers;  thus  show 
ing  that  the  gloom  of  these  dwellings  did  not  extend 
beyond  their  outer  walls.  I  observed  with  much  inter 
est  that  the  provision  for  closing  the  entrances  from 
the  street  was  not  swinging  doors  of  wood,  but  either 
metal  bars,  such  as  we  had  seen  in  Tizoc's  house,  or 
else  a  metal  grating,  that  was  arranged  like  a  port 
cullis  to  slide  up  and  down  in  a  groove;  and  I  attrib 
uted  the  absence  of  wooden  doors  less  to  a  desire  for 
stronger  barriers  than  to  the  comparative  recentness 
of  the  acquisition  of  the  knowledge  of  wood-working 
tools.  Here,  I  thought,  was  a  curious  instance  of  de 
velopment  along  the  lines  of  greatest  resistance;  for  in 
itself  the  invention  and  the  making  of  a  swinging  door 
of  wood  was  a  much  easier  matter  than  was  the  inven 
tion  and  the  making  of  these  finely  wrought  sliding 
doors  of  hardened  gold. 

As  for  Young,  the  sight  of  all  this  gold-work  quite 
took  his  breath  away.  "It  regularly  jolts  me,  Pro 
fessor,"  he  said,  "t'  see  th'  genuine  stuff,  that's  good 
t'  make  gold  dollars  out  of,  slung  around  this  way.  A 
front  door  of  solid  gold  is  a  huckleberry  above  Jay 
Gould's  biggest  persimmon ;  an'  as  t'  Solomon,  these 
fellows  just  lay  Solomon  out  cold  —  regularly  down 
th'  old  man  an'  sit  on  him.  Why,  just  for  that  one 
front  door  of  th'  big  house  ahead  of  us  I'd  sell  out 
all  my  shares  in  this  treasure-hunt,  an'  be  glad  t'  do 


THE   WALLED   CITT    OF  CULHtJACAN.  251 

it.  But  I  guess  I'd  have  to  hire  Samson — who  was  in 
that  line  of  business — t'  carry  it  off  for  me.  It  must 
weigh  a  solid  ton!" 

By  this  time  we  had  mounted  all  of  the  terraces, 
and  the  house  towards  which  Young  pointed  as  he 
spoke  was  built  directly  beneath  the  crooning  plateau 
on  which  the  great  temple  stood.  It  was  the  largest 
and  by  far  the  most  elegant  house  that  we  yet  had 
seen,  and  the  sliding  grating  of  gold  that  closed  the 
entrance  was  unusually  heavy,  and  very  beautifully 
wrought.  Sentinels  were  stationed  here,  wearing  the 
same  uniform  as  that  of  the  soldiers  who  formed  our 
guard ;  and  this  further  indication  of  the  importance 
of  the  building  gave  us  the  impression  that  it  was  the 
dwelling  of  some  great  dignitary.  Close  by  the  portal 
we  were  halted,  while  the  commander  of  our  guard 
spoke  through  the  grating  to  some  one  inside.  A  mo 
ment  later  the  grating  was  slowly  raised,  and  we  were 
marched  through  the  narrow  entrance,  and  so  along  a 
short  passage-way  into  a  long,  narrow  chamber  that 
obviously  was  a  guard-room  ;  for  spears  and  javelins 
were  ranged  in  orderly  fashion  upon  racks,  and  swords 
and  shields  and  bows  and  quivers  of  arrows  were  hung 
upon  the  walls.  Here  we  were  halted  again;  and  while 
we  stood  silent  together,  wondering  what  might  be  in 
store  for  us  in  this  place,  we  heard  the  heavy  grating 
behind  us  close  with  a  dull  clang. 


252  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 


XXII. 

THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION. 

So  dismal  was  this  sound,  and  so  many  were  the  dis 
mal  possibilities  that  it  suggested,  that  as  I  heard  it  a 
cold  chill  went  down  into  my  heart;  and  I  was  glad 
enough  that  we  at  once  were  led  forth  from  the  guard 
room,  and  that  in  consideration  of  matters  of  imme 
diate  moment  my  mind  was  diverted  from  dwelling 
drearily  upon  a  future  that  seemed  full  of  gloom. 

For  all  the  brilliant  blaze  of  sunlight  that  bright 
ened  the  large  court-yard  into  which  we  were  conduct 
ed,  there  was  about  it  a  curious  coldness  and  cheerless- 
ness.  As  in  the  case  of  all  the  other  houses  which  we 
had  observed,  the  stone-work  of  the  walls  and  of  the 
pavement  was  a  dull  black  ;  but  here  there  were  no 
flowers,  nor  bright  -  colored  hangings  over  the  inner 
doors,  nor  brightness  of  any  sort  or  kind.  The  carv 
ing  of  the  stone  was  extraordinarily  rich,  to  be  sure; 
but  the  bass-reliefs  which  covered  the  walls  were  wholly 
of  a  gloomy  sort — being  for  the  most  part  representa 
tions  of  the  slaughter  of  men  in  sacrifice,  and  the  tear 
ing  of  hearts  out — so  that  the  sight  of  them  made  me 
shiver,  notwithstanding  the  warmth  of  the  sun.  From 
the  centre  of  the  court-yard  a  broad  stair-way  ascended 
to  the  plateau  above  on  which  the  temple  stood;  and 
this  direct  way  of  communicating  with  it  led  me  to  the 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.        253 

conclusion  that  the  building  was  a  dependency  of  the 
temple,  and  that  very  likely  the  higher  members  of  the 
priesthood  were  housed  here. 

However,  little  time  was  given  for  looking  around 
us,  for  our  guard  hurried  us — El  Sabio  following  close 
at  Pablo's  heels — across  the  court-yard  to  a  door- way 
at  its  farther  side,  before  which  hung  in  heavy  folds  a 
curtain  of  some  sort  of  thick  black  cloth.  t  Across  this 
entrance  the  guard  was  drawn  up  in  orderly  ranks  be 
hind  us;  and  then  the  barge-master,  who  had  preserved 
absolute  silence  towards  us  since  our  march  through 
the  city  began,  held  aside  the  curtain  and  silently  mo 
tioned  to  us  to  enter. 

From  the  bright  sunshine  we  passed  at  a  step  into  a 
chamber  so  shadowy  that  we  involuntarily  stopped  on 
the  threshold,  in  order  that  our  eyes  might  become 
accustomed  to  the  semi-darkness  before  we  advanced. 
The  only  light  that  entered  it  came  through  two  nar 
row  slits  in  the  thick  wall  above  the  portal  that  we  had 
just  passed ;  and  the  glimmer  diffused  by  the  thin  rays 
thus  admitted  was  in  great  part  absorbed  by  the  black 
draperies  with  which  everywhere  the  room  was  hung. 
As  our  eyes  adjusted  themselves  to  these  gloomy  con 
ditions  we  perceived  that  we  were  in  a  hall  of  great 
size;  and  presently  we  were  able  to  distinguish  objects 
clearly  enough  to  see  that  at  the  far  end  of  it  was  a 
raised  dais,  having  a  sort  of  throne  upon  it ;  but  not 
until,  being  urged  forward  by  the  officer,  we  had  tra 
versed  more  than  half  the  length  of  the  hall  did  we 
discerned  upon  the  throne  the  shadowy  figure  of  a 
man. 


254  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Being  come  close  to  the  dais,  the  officer  halted  us 
by  a  gesture;  but  no  word  was  spoken,  and  for  sev 
eral  minutes  we  stood  in  the  semi  -  darkness  of  that 
strange  place  in  absolute  silence.  For  myself,  I  must 
confess  that  I  was  somewhat  awed  by  my  surround 
ings,  and  by  the  impassive  silence  and  stillness  that 
the  dimly  seen  figure  upon  the  throne  maintained,  and 
I  am  sure  that  Fray  Antonio's  imaginative  nature  was 
similarly  impressed;  as  for  Pablo,  I  distinctly  heard  his 
teeth  chattering  in  the  dark.  But  neither  Rayburn 
nor  Young,  as  the  latter  would  have  expressed  it,  awed 
easily,  and  it  was  Rayburn  who  presently  spoke, 

"  This  fellow  in  the  big  chair  would  be  a  good  hand 
at  private  theatricals.  He's  got  a  first-rate  notion  of 
stage  effect.  Hadn't  I  better  stick  a  pin  in  him  and 
wake  him  up  ?" 

"There's  no  good  in  stickin'  pins  into  him"  said 
Young,  in  a  tone  of  great  contempt.  "  What's  the 
matter  with  him  is,  he's  not  real  at  all — he's  stuffed !" 

There  was  something  so  absurdly  incongruous  in 
these  comments  that  they  acted  instantly  upon  my 
overstrained  nerves,  and  I  burst  into  a  laugh,  in  which 
the  other  two  immediately  joined.  Evidently,  this  was 
not  at  all  the  effect  that  this  carefully  arranged  recep 
tion  was  intended  to  have  upon  us ;  for  the  seated  fig 
ure  started  suddenly  and  uttered  an  angry  exclama 
tion,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  a  quick  order  to  the 
officer. 

"I  take  it  all  back,"  said  Young;  "he  ain't  stuffed. 
I  guess  he  was  only  asleep." 

As  Young  spoke  there  was  a  flight  nestle  of 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.        255 

ies,  and  in  a  moment  the  curtains  which  had  veiled 
four  great  windows  in  the  four  sides  of  the  hall  were 
pulled  aside,  and  the  darkness  vanished  in  a  sudden 
blaze  of  light.  While  we  shaded  our  eyes  for  some 
seconds,  Ray  burn  said,  with  great  decision  :  "  This  set 
tles  it.  He  must  have  been  in  the  show  business  all  his 
life." 

But  the  man  whom  we  now  saw  clearly  did  not  look 
like  a  showman.  He  was  a  very  old  man,  lean  and 
shrivelled  ;  his  brown  skin  so  wrinkled  that  his  face 
looked  like  some  sort  of  curiously  withered  nut.  Yet 
there  was  a  wonderful  siuewiness  about  him,  and  a 
most  extraordinary  brightness  in  his  eyes.  His  face 
was  of  the  strong,  heavy  type  that  is  found  in  the  fig 
ures  carved  on  the  ruins  in  Yucatan ;  a  much  stronger 
type  than  I  have  observed  anywhere  among  the  Mexi 
can  Indians  of  the  present  day.  His  dress  was  a  long, 
flowing  robe  of  white  cotton  cloth,  caught  over  his 
left  shoulder  with  a  broad  gold  clasp,  and  richly  em 
broidered  with  shining  green  feathers;  and  shining 
green  feathers  were  bound  into  his  hair  and  rose  above 
his  head  in  a  tall  plume.  His  sandal-moccasins  (for 
the  covering  of  his  feet  was  between  these  two)  re 
peated  the  sacred  combination  of  colors,  green  and 
white;  and  on  his  breast,  falling  from  his  neck,  were 
several  richly  wrought  gold  chains.  Even  apart  from 
his  stately  surroundings,  his  dress — and  especially  the 
shining  green  feathers  which  were  so  conspicuous  a 
part  of  it — would  have  informed  me  that  this  man  was 
a  priest  of  very  exalted  rank  ;  and  the  conditions  oi 
our  presentation  to  him  assured  me  that  he  was  none 


256  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

other  than  the  Priest  Captain,  Itzacoatl.  And  I  may 
add  that  if  ever  a  high  dignitary  of  a  heathen  religion 
was  in  a  rage,  Itzacoatl  was  in  a  rage  at  that  particu 
lar  moment.  Young's  comment  lacked  reverence,  but 
it  was  to  the  point:  "Well,  he  has  got  his  back  up,  for 
sure  !" 

With  an  alertness  that  was  astonishing  in  one  of  his 
years,  Itzacoatl  rose  quickly  from  the  throne;  and  as 
he  pointed  to  us  with  a  commanding  gesture,  he  asked, 
sharply,  why  we  had  been  allowed  to  retain  our  arms, 
and  ordered  them  to  be  taken  away  from  us  ;  which  or 
der  troubled  us  greatly,  and  also  occasioned  us  a  very 
lively  surprise.  As  for  the  barge-master,  he  evidently 
was  vastly  puzzled  by  it ;  for,  according  to  his  notions, 
we  were  not  armed.  He  did  not  venture  to  reply,  but 
his  uncertainty  as  to  the  duty  that  was  expected  of  him 
was  apparent  in  his  hopeless  look  of  entire  bewilder 
ment.  It  seemed  to  me  that  for  a  moment  the  Priest 
Captain  was  slightly  confused,  as  though  he  recognized 
the  incongruity  between  his  own  knowledge  in  this 
matter  and  his  officer's  ignorance;  and  in  explaining 
his  order  he  took  occasion  to  refer  to  the  superior 
knowledge  with  which  he  was  endowed  by  the  gods. 
Fray  Antonio  and  I  glanced  at  each  other  doubtingly 
as  he  spoke,  for  this  explanation  struck  us  as  being 
decidedly  forced.  The  gods  of  the  ancient  Mexicans 
pre-eminently  were  war  gods ;  but  they  certainly  were 
not  likely  to  have  any  very  extended  knowledge  of 
Winchester  rifles  and  self-cocking  revolvers. 

However,  when  the  officer  comprehended  what  was 
required  of  him,  he  was  prompt  enough  in  his  actions. 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.        257 

Without  any  ceremony  at  all  he  laid  hands  on  Young's 
rifle,  that  was  hanging  by  its  strap  on  his  shoulder, 
and  endeavored  to  take  it  away  from  him.  This  was  a 
line  of  action  that  the  Lost-freight  Agent  by  no  means 
was  inclined  to  submit  to.  Without  any  assistance  he 
unslung  the  rifle,  cocked  it  as  he  jumped  back  half  a 
dozen  steps,  and  then  raised  it  to  his  shoulder,  with  his 
finger  on  the  trigger  and  the  muzzle  fairly  levelled  at 
the  officer's  heart.  "Shall  I  down  him?"  he  asked. 

"Don't  shoot !"  Rayburn  cried,  quickly;  and  in  obe 
dience  to  this  order  Young  slowly  dropped  the  rifle 
from  his  shoulder,  yet  held  it  ready  for  action  in  his 
hands.  The  perfect  calmness  of  the  officer  through 
this  exciting  episode  afforded  the  most  convincing 
proof  that  fire-arms  were  wholly  unknown  to  him. 
And  the  conduct  of  the  Priest  Captain  afforded  equal 
ly  convincing  proof  that  he  not  only  understood  the 
nature  of  fire-arms,  but  that  he  was  very  much  afraid 
of  them;  for,  at  the  moment  that  Young  made  his  of 
fensive  demonstration,  he  very  precipitately  sheltered 
himself  by  crouching  behind  the  throne. 

"Don't  shoot !"  Rayburn  repeated.  "We  may  have 
a  chance  to  pull  through  if  we  don't  rile  these  fellows ; 
but  if  we  go  to  killing  any  of  them  now  it's  all  day 
with  us,  for  sure.  We'd  better  let  'em  have  our  guns  ; 
but  there's  something  mighty  odd  in  their  having 
found  out  all  of  a  sudden  what  a  gun  is." 

Very  reluctantly  Young  surrendered  his  rifle  to  the 

officer,  who  looked  at  it  contemptuously,  as  though  he 

considered  it  but  a  poor  sort  of  weapon  in  case  real 

fighting  was  to  be  done.     In  turn,  the  rest  of  us  gave 

17 


258  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

up  our  rifles  also;  and  we  were  mightily  pleased  be 
cause  the  officer  did  not  attempt  to  take  our  revolvers 
away  from  us.  But  in  this  our  satisfaction  was  short 
lived,  for  the  Priest  Captain  quickly  ordered  the  officer 
to  relieve  us  of  them,  and  of  our  cartridge-belts  as  well; 
nor  was  it  until  we  had  been  thus  entirely  disarmed  that 
he  arose  from  his  undignified  position  and  resumed  his 
seat  upon  the  throne. 

While  the  disagreeable  process  of  disarming  us  was 
going  on  I  spoke  to  Fray  Antonio  of  the  curious  possi 
bilities  suggested  by  the  knowledge  of  fire-arms  which 
the  Priest  Captain,  alone  among  all  the  Aztlanecas,  so 
obviously  possessed;  and  he,  in  reply,  bade  me  remem 
ber  what  Tizoc  had  told  us  of  the  use  that  Itzacoatl 
made  of  wax-matches  in  lighting  the  sacred  fire.  "  Can 
it  possibly  be,  then,  that  he  is  in  communication  with 
the  outside  world  ?"  I  exclaimed. 

As  I  uttered  these  words  I  glanced  at  Itzacoatl,  and 
the  expression  on  his  face  was  that  of  one  who  listens 
intently,  and  who  is  greatly  enraged  by  what  he  hears. 
At  the  same  moment  Rayburn  cried :  "  That  man  un 
derstands  Spanish.  He  is  listening  to  you." 

Doubtless,  some  sort  of  an  explanation  would  have 
followed  this  strange  discovery,  for  that  we  had  made 
it  was  very  obvious,  but  at  that  moment  a  man — seem 
ingly,  from  his  dress,  a  priest  of  high  rank — came  into 
the  hall  hurriedly,  and  very  earnestly  delivered  a  com 
munication  to  Itzacoatl  in  low,  excited  tones.  That 
the  substance  of  this  communication  was  highly  dis 
agreeable  to  him  was  shown  by  his  manner  of  receiving 
it ;  and  for  a  moment  he  slightly  hesitated,  as  though 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.         259 

very  grave  consequences  might  attend  upon  the  deci 
sion  that  he  then  made.  But  it  was  for  a  moment  only 
that  he  stood  in  doubt.  Then  he  called  the  barge-mas 
ter  to  him,  and  gave  some  order  in  a  low  voice ;  and 
then,  accompanied  by  the  priest,  went  out  rapidly  from 
the  hall. 

Evidently  in  obedience  to  the  order  that  he  had  re 
ceived,  the  barge-master  bade  us  follow  him,  and  so  led 
us  into  the  court-yard  again.  Young  proposed,  since 
we  had  only  this  one  man  to  deal  with,  that  we  should 
make  short  work  of  him,  and  so  get  back  our  arms — 
which  remained  where  he  had  placed  them  in  a  pile 
beside  the  throne.  But  Rayburn's  more  prudent  coun 
sel  overcame  this  tempting  proposition.  As  he  pointed 
out,  the  promptness  with  which  the  curtains  had  been 
pulled  back  showed  that  attendants  of  some  sort  were 
close  at  hand  ;  and,  in  addition  to  these,  we  knew  that 
the  guard  of  soldiers  was  just  outside  of  the  entrance 
to  the  hall.  It  was  certain,  therefore,  that  we  could 
not  regain  our  arms  without  immediately  using  them 
in  very  active  fighting  ;  and  no  matter  how  well  we 
fought,  under  these  conditions  we  must  certainly  be 
defeated  in  the  end.  All  of  which  was  so  just  and  so 
reasonable  that  Young  could  not  in  anywise  gainsay 
its  propriety  ;  but  he  was  in  a  very  ill  humor  at  being 
restrained  from  the  pleasure  of  having  it  out  with 
them,  as  he  grumblingly  declared  ;  and  as  we  passed 
out  into  the  court-yard  he  relieved  his  mind  by  swear 
ing  most  vigorously. 

For  my  part,  even  the  peril  that  we  were  in  did  not 
guffice  to  distract  my  mind  from  curious  consideration 


260  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

of  the  strange  state  of  affairs  that  existed  among  the 
folk  dwelling  in  this  hidden  valley  if  our  surmise  in 
regard  to  the  Priest  Captain's  knowledge  of  the  outer 
world  should  prove  to  be  well  founded  ;  and  unless 
it  were  well  founded,  there  seemed  to  be  no  possible 
way  by  which  to  account  for  his  possession  of  friction- 
matches,  his  acquaintance  with  fire-arms,  and  his  knowl 
edge  of  the  Spanish  tongue.  The  implication  was  un 
avoidable  that  this  extraordinary  man  actually  had  a 
more  or  less  complete  knowledge  of  the  powers  and 
appliances  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  that  he  was 
using  his  nineteenth  century  knowledge  to  maintain 
his  supremacy  over  a  people  whose  civilization  was 
about  on  a  par  with  that  of  European  communities 
of  a  thousand  years  ago.  From  the  stand -point  of  the 
ethnologist,  a  more  interesting  situation  than  the  one 
thus  developed  could  not  possibly  be  devised.  What 
I  most  longed  for  was  the  establishment  of  such  friend 
ly  relations  with  Itzacoatl  that  I  could  carry  out  a  sys 
tematized  series  of  scientific  investigations  among  the 
Aztlanecas  before  the  impending  crash  of  discovery 
came  ;  and  my  keenest  regret  at  that  moment  was 
caused  by  the  conviction  that  the  incapacity  of  Itza 
coatl  to  understand  the  value  of  scientific  inquiry  into 
such  curious  ethnologic  facts  would  result  in  his  mere 
vulgar  killing  of  me,  whereby  a  precious  store  of 
knowledge  would  be  withheld  from  the  world  at  large. 
As  we  came  out  into  the  court-yard  we  heard  the 
sound  of  voices,  which  seemed  to  be  raised  in  angry 
altercation,  coming  from  the  direction  of  the  main  en 
trance,  with  which  there  was  also  a  slight  clinking  sound 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.         261 

as  of  arms  being  got  in  readiness ;  and,  much  farther 
away,  the  sound  seemingly  coming  from  a  distant  quar 
ter  of  the  city,  the  tapping  of  a  drum.  When  we  first 
had  crossed  the  court-yard  it  had  been  entirely  desert 
ed  ;  but  now  many  priests  and  soldiers  were  standing 
in  groups  about  it,  and  more  were  coming  down  the  stair 
from  the  temple;  and  all  of  these  men  had  a  look  of  eager 
alertness,  as  though  some  decisive  event  were  imminent 
in  which  they  expected  to  have  a  part.  But  we  had 
only  a  moment  in  which  to  observe  all  this,  for  we  were 
hurried  away  towards  the  corner  of  the  building  that 
was  most  remote  from  the  street,  and  here,  before  I 
well  could  understand  what  was  being  done  with  me,  I 
was  thrust  so  suddenly  and  so  violently  through  a  nar 
row  door- way  that  I  fell  heavily  upon  the  floor.  Before 
I  could  regain  my  feet  Young  had  tumbled  down  on 
top  of  me,  and  then  the  others  tumbled  on  top  of  us 
both — they  having  been  in  the  same  rude  fashion  in 
jected  into  the  apartment ;  and  while  we  thus  were  ly 
ing  in  a  heap  together — my  own  body,  being  under 
most,  having  the  breath  wellnigh  squeezed  out  of  it — 
we  heard  the  rattle  of  metal  upon  stone  as  the  door 
way  was  quickly  closed  with  heavy  bars. 

We  struggled  to  our  feet  in  wellnigh  total  darkness 
— for  outside  the  bars  a  curtain  had  been  dropped  that 
shut  off  almost  wholly  the  light  of  day — and  I  am  con 
fident  that  no  one  room  ever  contained  two  angrier  peo 
ple  than  Rayburn  and  Young  were  then  ;  for  their  very 
strength  and  hardihood  made  them  the  more  ragingly 
resent  being  thus  tumbled  about  as  though  they  were 
bales  or  boxes  rather  than  men.  Rayburn's  language 


262  THE  AZTEC   TKEAStJRE-HOUSE. 

was  not  open  to  the  charge  of  weakness  ;  but  the  words 
in  which  Young  gave  vent  to  his  feelings  were  so  star- 
tlingly  vigorous  that  even  a  Wyoming  cow-boy  would 
have  been  surprised  by  them ;  yet  I  must  confess  that 
at  the  moment — so  greatly  was  my  own  anger  aroused 
— I  thought  his  observations  exceedingly  appropriate  to 
the  occasion  that  called  them  forth,  and  I  even  was  dis 
posed  to  envy  him  the  command  of  a  technical  vocabu 
lary  that  enabled  him  to  express  so  adequately  his  right 
eous  wrath.  However,  I  was  for  once  well  pleased  that 
Fray  Antonio  did  not  understand  English. 

But  our  anger  quickly  was  swallowed  up  in  anxious 
grief  as  we  discovered,  when  our  eyes  had  become  some 
what  accustomed  to  the  very  faint  light,  that  only  we 
four  were  in  the  room  together  ;  and  a  great  dread  fell 
upon  us  because  of  the  imminent  peril  to  Pablo  which 
this  separation  of  him  from  the  rest  of  us  implied.  As 
suredly  there  was  strong  reason  why  he  should  be  an 
especial  object  of  Itzacoatl's  fear  and  hatred.  He  and 
El  Sabio  together  were  the  visible  sign  which  told  that 
the  prophecy  touching  the  Priest  Captain's  downfall 
was  about  to  be  fulfilled  ;  and,  more  than  this,  Pablo's 
simple  statement  of  the  condition  of  affairs  among  the 
modern  Mexicans — showing  that  the  crisis  in  their  fate 
that  Chaltzantzin  had  foretold,  and  for  which  he  had  so 
well  prepared,  long  since  had  come  and  gone  —  would 
be  far  more  convincing  to  the  masses  of  the  Aztlanecas 
than  would  be  any  exhibition  of  these  same  facts  that 
we  could  make  to  them;  for  we  were  aliens  among 
them,  while  Pablo  was  of  their  own  race  and  class. 
That  we  all  were  like  to  be  done  to  death  by  this  bar- 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  REVOLUTION.         263 

barous  theocrat  we  did  not  for  a  moment  doubt ;  but  it 
was  plain  enough  that  every  motive  of  self-interest  must 
prompt  him  to  put  Pablo  and  the  poor  ass  most  sum 
marily  out  of  the  way.  And  as  the  logic  of  these  facts 
irresistibly  presented  itself  in  my  mind  a  keen  and 
heavy  sorrow  overcame  me,  for  I  could  not  shirk  the 
conviction  that,  whoever  might  strike  the  blow  that 
killed  him,  I  myself  was  the  cause  of  this  poor  boy's 
death.  Fray  Antonio  could  not  see  my  face  in  that 
shadowy  prison,  yet  his  fine  nature  divined  the  pain 
that  I  suffered  and  the  cause  of  it,  and  he  sought  to 
comfort  me  with  his  sympathy.  He  did  not  speak,  but 
he  came  close  beside  me  and  tenderly  laid  his  hand  upon 
my  shoulder ;  and  his  loving  touch,  telling  of  his  sorrow 
for  me  and  with  me,  did  bring  a  little  cheer  into  my 
heavy  heart. 

Meanwhile  the  commotion  outside  increased  great 
ly,  and  even  through  the  thick  folds  of  the  curtain  we 
could  hear  plainly  the  clanking  of  arms,  and  the  heavy 
tread  of  men,  and  sharply  given  words  of  command. 
We  pressed  close  to  the  bars  and  tried  to  push  the  cur 
tain  aside  that  we  might  see  out  into  the  court-yard  ; 
but  the  bars  were  so  near  together  that  our  hands  would 
not  pass  between  them,  and  we  therefore  could  gather 
only  from  the  sounds  which  we  heard  what  was  going 
on  outside.  But  the  sounds  were  unmistakable.  There 
could  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  a  vigorous  assault  upon 
the  building  was  in  progress,  and  that  those  within  it 
vigorously  were  defending  it ;  and  we  knew  that  the 
cause  of  the  fighting  certainly  must  be  ourselves.  Al 
ready,  it  would  seem,  the  prophecy  of  the  Priest  Cap- 


264  THE    AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

tain's  downfall  was  assuming  a  tangible  reality;  for 
this  rising  in  arms  against  him  could  mean  nothing  less 
than  that  his  high-handed  refusal  to  permit  us  to  be 
carried  before  the  Council  of  the  Twenty  Lords  had 
fairly  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  that  the  long- 
threatened  revolution  actually  had  been  begun. 


XXIII. 

A     RESCUE. 

THAT  the  two  parties  should  be  thus  battling  for 
possession  of  us  gave  us  a  gleam  of  hope  for  the  sav 
ing  of  our  lives.  While  we  remained  prisoners,  in  the 
ward  of  the  Priest  Captain,  we  knew  that  our  death 
was  inevitable ;  inasmuch  as  the  witness  which  we  bore 
against  him,  if  suffered  to  be  published,  must  of  ne 
cessity  bring  his  authority  to  an  end.  But  should  we 
pass  into  the  ward  of  the  Council,  there  was  every  rea 
son  why  we  should  be  cherished  and  protected  ;  be 
cause,  in  their  behalf,  we  would  be  witnesses  to  the 
justice  of  their  rebellion  against  Itzacoatl's  rule.  Nor 
would  this  feeling  of  amity  towards  us  be  confined  to 
the  leaders  of  the  revolt;  for  we  had  perceived  the  sub 
stantial  nature  of  the  reasons  which  Tizoc  had  given 
us  in  support  of  his  assurance  that  the  hope  of  deliver 
ance  from  oppression  which  our  coming  brought  would 
raise  up  around  us  a  host  of  friends.  Therefore  we 
knew  that  upon  the  issue  of  the  battling  that  we  heard 
the  sounds  of  so  loudly,  and  yet  that  might  as  well  have 


A    RESCUE.  265 

been  a  thousand  miles  away  for  all  that  we  could  see 
of  it,  our  fate  must  depend. 

And  knowing  this,  it  was  a  hard  trial  of  our  nerves 
and  tempers  to  be  forced  to  remain  there  idle  in  the 
dark,  without  the  chance  to  strike  in  our  own  behalf  a 
single  blow.  Young  strode  backward  and  forward  in 
such  a  fashion,  and  the  mutterings  beneath  his  breath 
were  so  like  growls,  that  the  likening  of  him  to  a  wild 
beast  in  a  cage,  while  trite,  is  strictly  accurate.  Ray- 
burn,  not  less  resolute,  but  more  self-contained,  pressed 
close  against  the  bars  and  never  stirred,  save  that  now 
and  then  he  cracked  his  thumbs  and  fingers  together 
with  such  vigor  that  the  sound  was  like  a  pistol-shot. 
And  even  I,  who  am  not  naturally  of  a  blood-thirsty 
disposition,  found  the  need  of  walking  briskly  about 
our  prison  in  order  to  quiet  a  little  my  strong  longing 
to  be  outside  with  a  weapon  in  my  hands  wherewith 
I  could  crack  some  skulls  open.  Indeed,  among  us 
all,  only  Fray  Antonio  maintained  an  outward  show  of 
calm. 

Thus  far,  all  the  sounds  which  we  had  heard  had 
come  to  us  from  the  direction  of  the  front  of  the  house, 
whence  we  inferred  that  the  fight  was  being  waged, 
greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  assailants,  through 
the  grating  by  which  the  entrance  was  closed.  But 
suddenly  there  was  an  outcry  of  alarm  close  by  us  in 
the  court-yard,  and  then  the  sound  of  hurrying  feet 
there,  and  then  a  roar  of  shouting  mingled  with  the 
fierce  clash  of  arms — so  that  we  knew  that  the  assail 
ants,  either  by  beating  in  the  grating  or  by  scaling  the 
roof,  had  got  inside.  They  and  the  defenders  were 


266  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

engaged,  hand  to  hand,  almost  within  arm's-length  of 
us.  We  could  hear  loudly  the  yells  with  which  every 
stroke  was  accompanied,  and  the  clang  of  metal  strik 
ing  upon  metal,  and  the  dull,  crushing  sound  of  the 
blows  which  went  home  truly  and  carved  through  flesh 
and  bone — and  we  could  see  no  more  of  it  all  than  if 
we  were  dreaming,  and  these  sounds  of  savage  warfare 
were  but  the  imaginings  of  our  brains !  One  man,  be 
ing,  as  we  supposed,  pursued  by  another  from  the  cen 
tral  part  of  the  court-yard — where,  as  it  seemed,  the 
fight  raged  most  hotly — made  a  stand  just  outside  the 
curtain  that  overhung  the  bars  whereby  we  were  pent 
in;  and  we  could  hear  him  panting  as  he  struck  and 
parried  there,  and  then  the  splitting  of  his  flesh  and 
the  crash  of  his  bones  as  a  tremendous  blow  overcame 
his  guard,  and  the  soft,  deep  groan  that  he  gave  as  his 
life  left  him.  His  body  fell  against  the  curtain  and 
dragged  it  a  little  ;  and  presently,  as  I  stood  there  by 
the  bars,  I  found  that  my  feet  were  in  a  pool  of  blood. 

It  was  only  a  moment  or  two  after  this  that  the 
sounds  of  conflict  very  sensibly  diminished,  and  we 
heard  a  rush  made,  and  the  confused  tread  of  feet  upon 
the  stairs  that  led  upward  to  the  temple,  and  then 
came  so  jubilant  a  shouting  that  we  knew  that  to  one 
side  or  the  other  had  come  victory. 

"  If  th'  Priest  Captain's  outfit 's  on  top,"  Young  said, 
grimly,  "  I  guess  we've  about  got  t'  th'  end  of  a  divis 
ion;  an' there's  not  much  chance  of  our  changin'  en 
gines  an'  keepin'  on  with  th'  run."  To  which  figura 
tive  suggestion  Kayburn  gave  an  immediate  grunt  of 
assent. 


A    RESCUE.  267 

But  at  that  very  instant  there  was  a  lull  in  the  tumult 
outside,  and  we  heard  a  voice  that  I  recognized  as  Ti- 
zoc's  loudly  calling  to  us;  and  to  his  hail,  that  carried 
such  joyful  meaning  with  it,  I  joyfully  and  loudly  an 
swered.  To  Ray  burn  and  Young,  of  course,  the  call 
was  unintelligible,  nor  did  they  recognize  the  voice  of 
him  who  called;  and  they  therefore  were  disposed  to 
think,  when  I  fell  to  shouting,  that  my  brain  was  ad 
dled.  However,  they  changed  their  views  a  minute  or 
two  later — the  dead  body  resting  against  the  curtain 
having  been  thrown  aside,  and  the  curtain  itself  torn 
down — wrhen  they  saw  Tizoc's  friendly  face  outside 
the  bars,  and  then  saw  the  bars  rapidly  removed. 

"  Colonel,"  said  Young,  very  seriously,  as  we  stepped 
forth  thankfully  once  more  into  the  sunshine,  "  you  may 
not  know  what  a  brick  is,  but  you  are  one.  Shake  !" 
and  very  much  to  Tizoc's  astonishment,  though  he 
perceived  that  the  act  was  meant  to  express  great 
friendliness,  Young  most  vigorously  shook  his  hand. 
Under  more  favorable  circumstances  Tizoc,  no  doubt, 
would  have  asked  for  an  explanation  of  this  curious 
ceremony,  but  just  then  his  whole  mind  was  given  to 
making  good  his  retreat  and  so  securing  us  against  re 
capture.  There  was  not  a  moment  to  lose,  he  said ; 
throughout  the  city  the  priests  everywhere  were  rally 
ing  forces  to  ItzacoatPs  support,  and  at  any  instant 
we  might  be  attacked.  As  he  spoke  he  drew  us  away 
with  him  towards  the  street,  where  the  main  body  of 
his  men  still  remained — for  only  a  small  part  of  them 
had  joined  in  scaling  the  roof,  and  so  taking  the  enemy 
by  surprise  in  the  rear. 


268  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

"But  what  of  Pablo,  our  young  companion?"  I 
asked,  stopping  short  as  I  spoke. 

"  My  men  are  looking  for  him;  they  will  find  him  in 
a  moment;  he  surely  is  safe;  he  may  be  already  out 
side.  Come." 

The  possibility  that  Pablo  truly  might  be  outside  of 
the  building  was  the  only  argument  that  could  have 
induced  us  to  leave  it  without  him;  and  that  possibili 
ty  was  so  reasonable  a  one  that  we  made  no  more  de 
lay.  Indeed,  we  fully  realized  the  necessity  for  prompt 
ness.  From  all  parts  of  the  city  came  a  humming, 
angry  sound,  which  assured  us  that  everywhere  the 
people  were  aroused;  and  Tizoc  bade  us  arm  ourselves 
with  what  weapons  we  could  use  most  effectively  among 
those  which  were  scattered  about  the  pavement  of  the 
court-yard,  as  we  surely  would  have  need  of  weapons 
soon.  A  sword  was  the  only  instrument  of  warfare  of 
which  I  had  knowledge  —  which  knowledge  was  ac 
quired  during  my  German  student  days — and  I  took, 
therefore,  one  of  the  heavy  maccuahuitls;  and  the  others 
also,  excepting  Fray  Antonio,  similarly  armed  them 
selves,  each  with  a  sword  that  they  found  lying  beside 
the  dead  hand  that  never  would  wield  it  more.  It  was 
as  we  obeyed  Tizoc's  order  that  we  saw  how  fierce  and 
how  bloody  the  fight  had  been;  for  the  court-yard  was 
red  with  blood,  like  a  slaughter-house,  and  over  the 
stones  everywhere  dead  bodies  were  lying,  all  cut  and 
gashed  with  ghastly  wounds.  Excepting  a  few  of 
Tizoc's  men,  who  had  bound  up  their  hurts,  and  who 
staggered  along  with  us,  not  a  wounded  man  remained 
alive;  whence  we  inferred  that  the  fight  had  been 


A   RESCUE.  269 

waged  on  strictly  barbarous  principles,  and  that  no 
quarter  had  been  given.  And  of  this  we  had  proof; 
for  as  we  passed  through  the  guard-room  we  found 
there  a  moaning  wretch,  belonging  to  the  Priest  Cap 
tain's  party,  in  whose  chest  was  a  great  hole  made  by 
a  spear-thrust — and  at  a  sign  from  Tizoc  one  of  our 
men  stepped  aside,  and  with  a  blow  of  his  heavy  sword 
coolly  mashed  in  the  wounded  man's  skull,  and  so  fin 
ished  him. 

The  metal  grating  that  closed  the  entrance  had  been 
raised  by  Tizoc's  people  from  the  inside,  and  we  passed 
out  beneath  it  to  where  the  main  body  of  his  men  was 
drawn  up  in  readiness  to  march.  But  of  Pablo  and  El 
Sabio  there  was  no  sign.  Tizoc  was  not  less  distressed 
by  the  loss  of  the  lad  than  we  were,  for  he  had  count 
ed  upon  the  moral  effect  which  the  exhibition  of  Pablo 
and  El  Sabio  most  certainly  would  produce  to  aid  pow 
erfully  in  fomenting  the  spirit  of  revolt.  When,  there 
fore,  we  refused  to  go  forward  until  further  search  had 
been  made,  he  did  not  oppose  us ;  but  he  told  us  plain 
ly  that  further  looking  for  him  in  that  place  was  use 
less,  for  already  every  room  in  the  building  had  been 
examined  without  the  finding  of  a  trace  of  him.  There 
could  be  no  doubt,  he  said,  that  when  we  had  been 
made  prisoners  Pablo,  and  El  Sabio  with  him,  had  been 
taken  up  the  stair  to  the  temple  for  greater  security; 
in  which  place,  if  they  were  not  both  by  this  time  dead, 
they  still  remained.  TVliereupon  Young  was  for  mak 
ing  an  attack  upon  the  temple  instantly,  and  in  this 
project  Rayburn  and  I  warmly  seconded  him;  and 
even  Fray  Antonio  said  that  this  was  a  case  in  which 


270  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

he  felt  justified  in  using  carnal  weapons,  since  the  fight* 
ing  would  be  to  rescue  from  among  infidels  a  Christian 
soul. 

But  Tizoc  hurriedly  explained  to  us  the  hoplessness, 
at  that  time,  of  such  an  assault.  The  success  that  had 
attended  his  bold  rescue  of  us  had  been  due  to  the  sud 
denness  of  it;  for  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the 
city,  including  the  large  force  of  soldiery  there,  assur 
edly  was  on  the  Priest  Captain's  side.  It  was  outside 
the  city  that  the  strength  of  the  revolution  must  be 
gathered;  and  his  orders  were,  when  his  rescue  of  us 
should  be  accomplished,  to  carry  us  safely  out  beyond 
the  walls  with  all  possible  speed.  Such  of  the  Council 
of  the  Twenty  Lords  as  had  decided  to  take  the  chances 
of  revolt — being  all  the  members  of  that  body  save  the 
five  priests  that  had  belonged  to  it — already  had  gone 
down  to  the  water-side,  together  with  the  small  force 
that  they  had  gathered,  that  they  might  seize  the  water- 
gate  and  hold  it  until  we  should  join  them.  Even  now 
it  was  certain  that  in  going  down  through  the  city  we 
should  have  to  fight  our  way,  and  each  moment  that 
we  delayed  our  retreat  increased  our  danger.  Captur 
ing  the  temple  now  was  a  sheer  impossibility.  Our 
only  hope  of  saving  Pablo's  life  lay  in  our  getting 
away  promptly,  and  so  beginning  the  preparations  that 
would  lead  to  ultimate  victory. 

All  the  while  that  Tizoc  spoke  he  was  edging  us 
away  towards  the  outer  face  of  the  terrace,  where  steps 
led  downward ;  and  when  the  men  who  had  been 
searching  the  building  once  more  for  Pablo  returned 
without  him,  he  resolutely  gave  the  order  to  march, 


A    RESCUE.  271 

To  the  arguments  that  he  had  advanced  we  were  com 
pelled  to  yield;  but  our  hearts  were  heavy  with  sor 
row  for  the  boy  whom  we  were  leaving  behind  us,  and 
little  hope  was  in  our  breasts  that  we  ever  again 
should  see  him  alive. 

The  truth  of  Tizoc's  words  about  the  great  danger 
that  we  ourselves  were  in  became  apparent  as  we 
crossed  the  terrace  next  below  that  on  which  our 
march  began.  Where  the  street  passed  through  the 
rampart  by  a  narrow  portal,  and  so  by  a  flight  of  stone 
steps  descended  to  the  next  level,  soldiers  were  clus 
tered  together  with  the  evident  intention  of  disputing 
the  way  with  us.  Their  number  was  so  much  less  than 
ours  that  we  made  short  work  of  them ;  killing  a  few, 
and  driving  the  remainder  down  the  steps  before  us. 
But  those  who  escaped  ran  on  ahead  of  us  to  where 
the  next  rampart  was,  and  there  joined  themselves  to 
a  much  larger  body  that  lay  in  wait  for  us.  Here  our 
work  was  less  easy;  for  the  force  that  confronted  us 
was  nearly  our  equal,  and  some  resolute  fighting  was 
required  before  we  could  drive  it  before  us  and  so  pass 
on.  Some  of  our  men  were  killed  there,  and  more  of 
the  enemy;  and  I  got  a  trifling  hurt  in  my  arm  from 
the  point  of  a  javelin,  that,  luckily,  did  little  more 
than  graze  the  skin.  I  do  not  think  that  I  killed  any 
body  there,  but  I  remember  very  plainly  the  look  of 
pain  and  of  anger  on  the  face  of  that  fellow  who  poked 
his  javelin  at  me  when  I  gashed  his  arm,  and  broke 
the  bone  of  it,  with  a  blow  from  my  sword.  I  was 
glad,  at  the  moment,  that  I  had  succeeded  in  giving 
him  a  worse  hurt  than  he  had  given  me ;  and  then  the 


272  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-IIOUSE. 

absurdity  occurred  to  me  of  my  thus  fighting  with  a 
total  stranger,  against  whom  I  had  no  personal  ill-will ; 
and  I  could  not  but  feel  sorrow  for  him  as  I  thought 
of  the  long  time  that  he  must  suffer  severe  pain  and 
great  inconvenience  because  I  had  chanced  to  strike 
him  that  blow.  However,  from  the  way  in  which  they 
went  cutting  and  slashing  about  them,  it  was  evident 
that  neither  Rayburn  nor  Young  were  troubled  with 
any  compunctions  of  this  nature.  They  were  only  too 
glad,  apparently,  to  get  a  chance  to  whack  away  at 
any  of  the  Priest  Captain's  representatives  ;  and  they 
made  such  use  of  their  opportunity  that  the  Aztlane- 
cas  fighting  with  us  cried  out  in  admiration  of  their 
prowess  and  their  strength.  Fray  Antonio  was  more 
sorely  tried  than  any  of  us  during  this  passage,  for  I 
knew  that  his  flesh  greatly  longed  to  take  part  in  the 
fighting,  and  that  only  the  strong  spirit  which  was 
within  him  subdued  the  flesh  and  so  held  his  hands. 

With  a  final  rush  we  succeeded  in  forcing  the  en 
emy  through  the  narrow  opening  in  the  rampart,  and 
so  down  the  steps  beyond;  but  as  we  pursued  them 
across  the  next  terrace,  keeping  close  at  their  heels  so 
that  they  might  not  have  time  to  form  again,  many 
of  our  wounded  fell  out  from  the  ranks  and  dropped 
by  the  way — and  we  had  left  behind  us  a  dozen  or 
more  of  our  dead  on  the  ground  where  the  fight  had 
been. 

Our  tactics  of  rapid  pursuit  of  the  force  that  we  had 
defeated  served  us  well  at  the  next  rampart ;  for  the 
men  whom  we  pursued  and  we  ourselves  came  to  it 
almost  in  one  body,  and  thus  threw  into  such  confu- 


A   RESCUE.  273 

sion  the  fresh  force  that  was  waiting  for  us  that,  with 
out  any  long  fighting  about  it,  we  drove  right  through 
them  and  went  on  downward  ;  and  in  the  same  dash 
ing  fashion  we  carried  the  rampart  beyond.  However, 
when  these  men  whom  we  had  pushed  aside  from  our 
path  so  easily  got  over  their  surprise  at  being  so  light 
ly  handled,  they  formed  in  our  rear  and  came  hurry 
ing  after  us ;  the  result  of  which  was  that  as  we  ap 
proached  the  last  of  the  ramparts  that  we  had  to  pass 
through,  where  was  gathered  the  largest  body  of  men 
that  we  had  yet  encountered,  we  found  ourselves  fairly 
wedged  in  between  two  bodies  of  the  enemy  and  out 
numbered  four  to  one.  Here,  too,  the  passage  through 
the  rampart  had  been  closed  by  the  metal  bars  that 
were  in  readiness  for  that  purpose.  Setting  these  in 
place  was  no  real  barrier  to  our  passage,  for,  being  in 
tended  to  close  the  portal  against  assailants  from  be 
low,  the  fastenings  which  held  them  were  on  the  side 
nearest  to  us.  But  to  remove  them  it  was  necessary 
that  we  should  fight  our  way  through  the  crowd — with 
no  possibility  of  driving  the  enemy  before  us,  as  we 
had  done  upon  the  upper  terraces,  since  here  the  way 
was  closed.  What  we  did  was  literally  to  cut  a  path 
through  the  throng ;  and  over  the  men  who  fell  dead 
or  wounded  beneath  our  blows  we  made  our  advance. 
There  was  a  curious  creeping,  uneasy  sensation  in  the 
region  of  my  stomach  as  I  trod  thus  on  the  bodies  of 
wounded  men  who  were  not  dead  yet,  and  felt  them 
moving,  and  heard  their  groaning  ;  and  I  was  conscious 
of  a  feeling  of  relief  when  a  body  that  I  trod  upon 
did  not  squirm  beneath  my  foot,  and  so  by  its  stillness 
18 


274  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

assured  me  that  I  was  standing  only  on  dead  flesh  that 
had  no  feeling  in  it. 

Very  slowly  did  we  go  forward,  for  while  the  living 
barrier  that  we  had  to  deal  with  was  not  at  the  outset 
more  than  twenty  feet,  or  thereabouts,  in  thickness, 
hacking  it  down  took  us  a  tediously  long  time.  While 
still  we  faced  a  dozen  or  more  very  desperate  fighters, 
who  held  us  off  most  resolutely  from  the  metal  bars 
which  closed  the  way,  a  pang  of  dread  and  sorrow 
went  through  me  as  I  perceived  that  Fray  Antonio, 
who  a  moment  before  had  been  close  beside  me,  had 
disappeared.  That  he  might  the  better  restrain  his 
longing  to  take  part  in  the  fighting  he  had  remained 
in  the  centre  of  our  men ;  and  it  was  hard  to  under 
stand  how,  in  that  position,  harm  could  have  come  to 
him,  for  missiles  had  no  share  in  the  work  that  was 
going  forward,  which  was  a  fiery  struggle  hand  to 
hand. 

As  I  looked  for  him  in  the  throng — so  far  as  I  could 
do  this  and  at  the  same  time  keep  up  my  guard 
against  the  man  whom  at  that  moment  I  was  fighting 
with — I  saw  some  signs  of  uneasy  movement  among 
the  enemy  in  advance  of  us,  and  several  of  them  evi 
dently  made  an  effort  to  reach  down  as  though  to  get 
at  something  that  was  on  the  ground ;  which  effort 
was  wholly  futile,  for  they  were  wedged  so  tightly  to 
gether  by  our  pressure  upon  them  that  reaching  down 
ward  was  impossible.  By  a  lucky  blow,  I  just  then 
finished  the  man  with  whom  I  was  contending,  and  so 
had  a  moment's  breathing  spell ;  and  at  that  instant  I 
saw  one  of  the  enemy,  whose  back  was  ranged  against 


THE    AFFAIR    AT   THE    WATER-GATE.  275 

the  bars,  rise  up  in  the  air  as  though  a  strong  spring 
had  been  loosed  beneath  him,  and  then  fall  sidewise 
upon  the  heads  and  shoulders  of  his  fellows.  And 
then,  in  the  place  thus  made  vacant,  the  cowled  head  of 
Fray  Antonio  instantly  appeared — whereby  I  guessed, 
what  afterwards  I  knew  certainly,  that  he  had  crawled 
along  the  ground  through  the  press  until  he  reached 
the  place  that  he  aimed  at,  and  then  had  risen  up  be 
neath  one  of  the  enemy  with  such  sudden  violence 
that  he  fairly  had  sent  the  man  spinning  upward  into 
the  air.  Whart  his  purpose  was  I  saw  in  a  moment, 
for  no  sooner  did  he  stand  upright  than  he  had  his 
hands  upon  the  metal  bars,  and  then  I  heard  the  clink 
ing  together  of  stone  and  metal  as  he  lifted  them 
bodily  away. 


XXIV. 

THE    AFFAIR   AT   THE    WATER-GATE. 

RAYBURN  gave  a  great  roar  of  gladness  as  the  clink 
ing  sound  made  him  turn  and  he  saw  what  was  going 
forward;  and  Young  and  I  joined  him  in  lusty  Anglo- 
Saxon  cheering,  while  our  allies,  in  the  savage  fashion 
natural  to  them,  vented  their  joy  in  shrill  yells.  In 
the  midst  of  which  cheering  and  yelling  we  pushed 
forward  so  hotly  that  the  enemy,  disconcerted  by  this 
sudden  shifting  of  fortune  in  our  favor,  and  the  men 
directly  in  front  of  us  being  most  seriously  incom 
moded  by  their  comrade  lying  sprawled  out  and  kick 
ing  upon  their  heads  and  shoulders,  seemed  suddenly 


276  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

to  lose  heart  so  completely  that  we  had  no  difficulty 
in  cutting  them  down.  Even  had  they  not  been  too 
closely  wedged  in  to  turn  upon  Fray  Antonio,  our 
strong  dashing  upon  them  would  have  compelled  them 
to  leave  him  unharmed  in  order  to  defend  themselves ; 
and  so  it  was  that,  by  the  time  we  had  cut  a  path  to 
the  portal,  the  monk  had  released  the  whole  tier  of 
bars  from  their  fastenings,  and  the  way  was  free. 

As  we  sprang  down  the  steps — with  Fray  Antonio, 
once  more  in  the  guise  of  a  non-combatant,  safe  in  the 
midst  of  our  company — we  heard  a  great  outcry  from 
below,  and  saw  a  considerable  body  of  men  marching 
up  towards  us  steadily  from  the  water-side ;  but  the 
alarm  that  sight  of  them  gave  us  was  only  momentary, 
for  their  shouts,  and  the  shouts  of  our  men  in  answer, 
showed  us  that  these  were  friends  come  to  our  sup 
port.  However  we  had  no  great  need  of  them,  for  those 
of  the  enemy  whom  we  left  alive  behind  us  seemed 
suddenly  to  have  grown  sick  of  fighting,  and  made 
no  attempt  to  follow  after  us  down  the  stairs.  Yet 
the  coming  of  this  supporting  force,  to  be  just  in  the 
matter,  no  doubt  was  the  saving  of  us  ;  for  more  than 
half  of  the  men  who  had  been  with  us  when  we  started 
on  our  march  down  through  the  city  had  been  slain 
by  the  way,  and  nearly  all  in  our  company  were  more 
or  less  disabled  by  wounds.  Tizoc  and  Young  and 
Rayburn  had  come  through  it  all  without  so  much  as 
a  scratch,  and  because  of  their  extraordinary  strength 
these  three  were  almost  as  fresh  as  when  the  fighting 
began ;  but  the  rest  of  us  were  sorely  weary,  and  our 
breathing  was  so  heavy  and  so  tremulous  that  each 


THE    AFFAIR    AT    THE    WATER-GATE.  277 

breath  was  like  a  long-drawn  sob.  Truly,  then,  we 
were  glad  to  fall  in  in  advance  of  the  supporting  col 
umn  and  so  make  our  way,  with  a  strong  rear -guard 
for  our  protection,  across  the  bit  of  level  land  that  lay 
between  us  and  the  lake. 

At  the  water-side  boats  were  in  readiness  for  us,  and 
here  we  found  also  the  members  of  the  Council  who 
had  ordered,  and  who  were  the  recognized  leaders  of, 
the  revolt.  There  was  still  more  fighting  ahead  of  us, 
for  the  necessity  of  sending  back  the  relief  party  had 
prevented  the  seizing  of  the  water-gate;  and  this  was 
a  matter  that  had  to  be  attended  to  quickly,  for  we 
could  see  bodies  of  men  coming  down  several  of  the 
streets  in  pursuit  of  us,  and  unless  we  escaped  outside 
the  wall  before  they  overtook  us  there  was  a  strong 
and  dismal  probability  that  our  whole  plan  would  fail. 
Therefore,  we  tumbled  aboard  the  boats  with  all  pos 
sible  rapidity,  and  while  the  pursuing  parties  still  were 
far  in  our  rear  we  shoved  off  from  the  shore. 

Two  minutes'  quick  rowing  sufficed  to  carry  our  flo 
tilla  of  boats  across  the  basin,  and  so  brought  us  to  the 
long  pier  that  extended  landward  from  beside  the  wa 
ter-gate,  and  from  which  an  open  stair-way  ascended 
to  the  top  of  the  wall.  On  the  pier  there  was  no  one 
at  all  to  oppose  our  landing ;  and  the  force  on  the  wall 
was  not  likely  to  be  a  large  one,  for  the  outbreak  had 
come  so  suddenly  that  there  had  been  no  time  to  in 
crease  the  small  detail  maintained  in  this  position  in 
times  of  peace.  Only  a  few  of  our  men,  therefore — 
thirty  or  forty,  perhaps — were  ordered  out  of  the  boats 
to  the  attack,  of  which  the  leader  was  Tizoc,  and  with 


278  THE   AZTEC  TBEASTJEE-HOUSE. 

which  Rayburn  and  Young  went  as  volunteers.  I  also 
would  have  joined  the  party;  but  Rayburn,  knowing 
that  I  was  slightly  wounded,  begged  me  to  stay  where 
I  was ;  and  Young,  as  he  ran  up  the  stairs,  called  back 
to  me :  "  You  just  see  that  they  keep  steam  up,  Pro 
fessor.  We'll  attend  t'  takin'  off  th'  brakes." 

What  went  on  above  us,  on  top  of  the  wall,  we  could 
not  see;  but  the  work  done  there  was  done  quickly. 
There  was  a  little  shouting,  a  sound  of  arms  clashing, 
and  then  four  or  five  men — as  though  this  were  the 
easiest  way  of  getting  rid  of  them — were  thrown  over 
the  parapet,  and  fell  near  us  in  the  water.  To  these 
short  shrift  was  given.  As  they  came  to  the  surface, 
our  fellows  instantly  finished  them  with  a  spear-thrust 
or  two.  Then  we  heard  the  sound  of  a  windlass  creak 
ing,  and  the  clanking  of  chains ;  and  as  we  looked 
through  the  opening  in  the  wall  we  saw  the  grating 
that  closed  its  farther  end  rise  slowly  until  the  way 
before  us  was  free.  Two  of  our  boats  already  were  in 
the  passage,  so  that  no  time  might  be  lost;  and  as  these 
passed  out  into  the  lake,  the  others  followed  after  them 
rapidly.  One  boat  remained  to  bring  off  the  attack 
ing  party,  and  we  wondered  a  little  because  its  com 
ing  was  a  good  while  delayed.  But  we  wondered  still 
more  when  it  joined  us  at  last,  and  we  found  that  Tizoc 
and  Young  and  Rayburn  were  not  in  it ;  indeed,  at 
that  moment  I  saw  the  three  of  them  standing  togeth 
er  on  top  of  the  wall.  In  answer  to  the  shout  that  I 
gave,  Rayburn  leaned  over  the  wall  and  motioned  to 
me  to  keep  silence;  and  so  I  knew  that  they  had  not 
been  left  behind  through  treachery,  but  were  staying 


THE    AFFAIR    AT   THE    WATER-GATE.  279 

there  because  they  had  some  plan  against  the  enemy 
that  they  thus  could  execute.  And  for  knowledge  of 
what  their  plan  was  we  did  not  have  to  wait  long. 

As  we  lay  on  our  oars,  off  the  outer  end  of  the  wa 
ter-gate,  we  could  see  through  it  into  the  basin  that 
lay  before  the  city,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  the  pur 
suing  boats  of  the  enemy  came  into  view.  As  they 
neared  us,  we  saw  standing  in  the  bow  of  the  leading 
boat  the  same  officer  who  had  commanded  the  guard 
that  had  brought  us  as  prisoners  before  the  Priest 
Captain ;  the  man  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  for  what 
his  real  title  was  I  do  not  know,  as  the  barge-master. 
He  was  calling  to  his  men  savagely  to  row  faster ;  for 
our  boats  were  so  scattered  that  he  only  could  see  the 
one  in  which  we  happened  to  be,  and  he  doubtless  im 
agined  that  the  others  had  gone  forward,  and  that  this 
one  waited  to  carry  off  some  of  our  men  who  yet  re 
mained  on  the  wall.  He  evidently  hoped  to  be  able 
to  cut  us  off  from  the  rest  of  our  party,  and  his  eager 
ness  had  so  communicated  itself  to  his  oarsmen  that 
his  boat  led  the  others  by  nearly  a  hundred  yards. 
So  far  as  this  one  boat  was  concerned,  we  felt  no 
alarm,  for  the  moment  that  it  came  out  through  the 
wall  our  whole  force  was  ready  to  dash  upon  it ;  yet 
we  wondered  why  Tizoc  permitted  even  a  single  boat 
to  come  out  to  the  attack,  when,  by  dropping  the  grat 
ing,  they  all  could  be  penned  in  so  effectually  as  to 
give  us  the  advantage  of  a  long  start. 

As  the  boat  neared  the  water-gate  the  barge-master 
went  back  from  his  place  in  the  bow  to  the  middle 
part  of  it,  and  there  crouched  down;  and  some  soldiers 


280  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

who  were  standing  crouched  down  also;  and  almost 
as  the  bow  entered  the  low,  narrow  passage  the  oars 
were  unshipped  and  taken  aboard.  So  cleverly  was 
the  unshipping  of  the  oars  managed,  and  so  good  was 
the  steering,  that  the  boat  shot  into  the  passage  un 
der  full  speed,  and  so  came  nearly  through  it  before 
losing  head-way.  And  we  who  were  nearest  to  it  got 
our  arms  in  readiness — for  we  were  convinced  that  in 
another  minute  the  barge-master  would  lay  us  aboard. 
But  this  was  not  destined  to  be,  nor  were  the  men  in  that 
boat  destined  ever  to  do  any  more  fighting  in  this  world. 
All  this  while  Rayburn  had  stood  close  by  the  para 
pet,  bending  over  it  and  intently  watching  the  outside 
of  the  water-gate ;  above  which  the  heavy  metal  grat 
ing  had  been  hauled  up,  in  the  metal  grooves  that  it 
ran  in,  almost  to  the  top  of  the  wall.  At  the  moment 
that  the  bow  of  the  boat  showed  outside  the  opening 
he  raised  his  hand,  as  though  signalling  to  Young  and 
Tizoc  behind  him ;  and  in  that  same  instant  we  heard 
the  shrieking  of  the  windlass  and  the  quick  clanking 
of  the  unwinding  chains,  and  saw  the  metal  grating 
rushing  down  the  face  of  the  wall.  With  all  the  force 
generated  by  the  fall  from  so  great  a  height  of  so  pon 
derous  a  body,  the  grating  came  crashing  into  the  boat 
just  amidships,  fairly  dividing  its  heavy  timbers  and 
forcing  the  fragments  of  it,  together  with  all  the  men 
that  it  carried,  down  into  the  water's  depths.  But  the 
barge-master  died  by  a  quicker  death  than  drowning. 
He  still  was  crouched  in  the  middle  of  the  boat,  and 
the  sharp  angle  of  the  lower  bar  of  the  grating  struck 
him  just  on  the  nape  of  his  neck  so  keenly  that  his 


THE    AFFAIR    AT   THE    WATER-GATE.  281 

head  was  cut  off  and  seemed  of  itself  to  spring  for 
ward  and  away  from  him;  while  the  broad  flat  bar, 
coming  down  upon  his  bowed  shoulders,  crushed  his 
body  into  a  mere  quivering  mass  of  flesh. 

A  great  yell  of  delight  went  up  from  our  boats  as 
this  brilliant  stroke  so  brilliantly  was  delivered  ;  and 
an  answering  cry  of  triumph  —  that  was  one-third  a 
yell  and  two-thirds  a  cheer  —  came  back  from  Tizoc 
and  the  others  on  top  of  the  wall.  However,  they  had 
no  time  to  waste  in  shouting  over  their  success,  for  the 
remaining  boats  of  the  enemy  had  come  by  this  time 
to  the  pier  inside  the  wall,  and  it  seemed  highly  prob 
able  that  in  a  minute  or  two  more  our  three  men  would 
be  prisoners.  But  for  all  their  danger  they  coolly  fin 
ished  the  work  that  they  had  in  hand.  As  they  ex 
plained  to  me  afterwards,  Rayburn  stood  at  the  head 
of  the  stair  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check  should  they 
come  before  the  work  was  finished — and  very  strong 
as  well  as  very  brave  must  the  man  have  been  who 
would  have  ventured  to  attack  him  as  he  occupied  that 
position  of  overpowering  advantage — while  the  other 
two  cast  off  from  the  windlass  the  chains  by  which 
the  water-gate  was  operated,  and  dropped  them  over 
the  wall  into  the  lake;  and  as  the  gate  itself  was 
jammed  and  wedged  fast  by  the  fragments  of  the 
boat,  this  throwing  down  of  the  chains  made  the  rais 
ing  of  it  a  serious  undertaking  that  well  might  require 
a  day  or  more  to  accomplish. 

As  the  chains  fell  with  a  splash,  and  we  compre 
hended  the  thoroughness  of  the  work  that  these  three 
were  doing,  our  people  burst  forth  into  yells  again ; 


282  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

and  a  perfect  roar  went  up  from  them  when,  the  gate 
being  closed  and  the  apparatus  for  raising  it  being  en 
tirely  disabled,  Rayburn  sprang  from  the  outer  edge 
of  the  parapet  into  the  lake,  and  Tizoc  and  Young  in 
stantly  followed  him.  In  truth,  a  more  gallant  feat 
of  arms  had  not  been  essayed,  nor  carried  to  a  more 
triumphant  conclusion,  since  the  Roman  gate  was  held 
by  Horatius;  and  in  my  admiration  of  it  I  shouted  un 
til  the  muscles  of  my  throat  were  strained  and  aching. 
Our  boat  already  was  near  the  wall — having  pulled  in 
that  the  soldiers  aboard  of  it  might  spear  such  of  the 
enemy  as  came  up  to  the  surface  alive  —  and  we  had 
the  three  out  of  the  water  and  safe  among  us  in  very 
short  order;  and  then  we  pulled  away  towards  the 
other  boats  with  all  possible  speed — for  the  wall  now 
was  manned  by  the  eneni}^,  and  they  were  beginning 
to  make  things  unpleasantly  hot  for  us  with  the  heavy 
stones  which  they  heaved  over  the  parapet,  that  our 
boat  might  be  sunk  by  them,  and  by  a  rapid  discharge 
of  darts.  Luckily,  none  of  the  stones  struck  us,  and 
because  of  the  rapid  way  that  we  were  making,  only 
two  of  our  men  were  struck  with  the  darts.  So,  on 
the  whole,  we  came  out  of  this  encounter  very  well; 
for  these  two  men  killed  in  our  boat  were  all  that  we 
lost,  while  of  the  enemy  at  least  forty  were  drowned 
or  speared.  However,  we  owed  our  light  escape  main 
ly  to  the  fact  that  the  enemy,  having  armed  hurriedly, 
and  expecting  only  to  fight  with  us  at  close  quarters, 
had  with  them  neither  bows  nor  slings — but  for  which 
fortunate  fact  it  scarcely  is  possible  that  a  single  man 
in  our  boat  would  have  come  off  alive. 


THK    LKAP    FROM    ABOVE   TIIK    WATER-GATE. 


THE    AFFAIR    AT   THE    WATER-GATE.  283 

Dripping  wet  though  they  were,  I  fairly  hugged 
Rayburn  and  Young  when  they  were  safe  aboard  with 
us,  as  did  also  Fray  Antonio,  whose  daring  spirit  was 
mightily  aroused  by  witnessing  their  splendid  bravery. 
And  in  giving  them  hearty  words  of  praise  for  what 
they  had  done — which  yet  fell  far  short  of  their  de 
serts — I  naturally  likened  them  to  the  Roman  hero. 
Indeed,  I  may  say  that  the  parallel  that  I  there  drew 
was  an  apt  one,  and  in  some  of  its  turns  was  not  de 
void  of  grace. 

"  I  can't  say,  Professor,"  Young  answered,  when  I 
had  finished,  "  that  I  ever  heard  o'  th'  party  you  refer 
to,  but  if  this  Horace — what  did  you  say  his  last  name 
was? — pinched  his  fingers  in  th' drawbridge  chains  as 
damnably  as  I  pinched  mine  in  th'  chains  of  that  in 
fernal  grating,  I'll  bet  a  hat  he  was  sorry  that  he 
hadn't  run  away !"  And  I  truly  believe  that  Young 
thought  more  about  his  pinched  fingers  than  he  did 
about  the  resolute  bravery  that  he  had  shown  in  fin 
ishing  his  work  upon  the  wall  in  the  very  face  of  the 
advancing  enemy. 

Being  once  out  of  range  of  the  darts,  we  pulled 
towards  the  other  boats  leisurely;  for  now  we  were 
entirely  safe  against  pursuit,  and  were  free  to  go  upon 
the  lake  in  whatsoever  direction  we  pleased.  That 
some  positive  line  of  action  had  been  determined  upon 
was  evident,  for  the  flotilla  already  was  in  motion  as 
we  came  up  in  the  rear  of  it — the  boat  containing  the 
members  of  the  Council  leading — and  the  order  was 
passed  back  to  us  that  we  should  follow  with  the  rest. 
From  the  direction  in  which  we  were  heading,  Tizoc 


284  THE   AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

inferred  that  we  were  bound  for  the  only  other  consid 
erable  town  in  the  valley,  that  which  had  grown  up 
around  the  shafts  leading  to  the  great  mine  whence 
the  Aztlanecas  drew  their  supply  of  gold.  There  w^as 
a  very  grave  look  upon  his  face  as  he  told  us  of  our 
probable  destination ;  and  presently  added  that  the 
population  of  this  town — save  the  few  freemen  who 
were  in  charge  of  the  workings,  and  the  large  guard 
of  soldiers  that  always  was  maintained  there  —  was 
made  up  wholly  of  Tlahuicos  who  had  been  selected 
from  their  fellows  to  be  miners  because  of  their  excep 
tional  hardiness  and  strength. 

It  was  among  these  men,  he  went  on  to  tell  us, 
speaking  in  a  low,  guarded  voice,  that  the  most  dan 
gerous  of  the  revolts  of  the  Tlahuicos  invariably  had 
their  origin;  for  the  miners  were  fierce,  half -savage 
creatures,  naturally  turbulent  and  rebellious,  and  were 
stirred  constantly  to  resentful  anger  because  of  the 
life  of  crushing  toil  that  they  were  condemned  to  lead. 
So  dangerous  were  they  that  the  only  effective  means 
of  keeping  them  in  subjection  was  to  hold  the  major 
part  of  them  continually  prisoners  underground  in  the 
mine,  with  a  guard  stationed  at  the  mouth  of  each 
shaft  under  orders  to  kill  instantly  any  man  who  at 
tempted  to  come  forth  from  the  mine  without  author 
ity.  In  order  that  their  labor,  a  thing  of  positive 
value,  might  not  be  lost  through  their  dying  of  being 
thus  imprisoned  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  they  were 
divided  into  ten  great  companies,  each  one  of  which,  in 
regular  order,  was  employed  in  the  surface  work  under 
the  constant  supervision  of  a  strong  guard.  Yet  even 


THE    GOLD-MIXERS    OF    HUITZILAN.  285 

these  stern  measures  were  not  wholly  effective  in  pre 
venting  mutiny.  Many  times  great  revolts  had  broken 
out  here  that  had  set  all  the  valley  in  an  uproar,  and 
that  had  been  crushed  only  after  pitched  battles  had 
been  fought  between  the  rebels  and  the  entire  military 
force  of  the  state.  The  town  was  a  veritable  volcano, 
Tizoc  declared ;  and  because  of  the  dread  of  it  that 
universally  obtained,  by  reason  of  the  frequent  out 
bursts  there  of  lawless  violence,  it  had  received  the 
name  of  Huitzilan:  the  Town  of  War. 

And  there  could  be  no  doubt,  he  added — while  the 
tones  of  his  voice  and  the  look  upon  his  face  showed 
how  great  he  believed  to  be  the  risk  involved  in  this 
line  of  policy — that  in  now  directing  our  course  tow 
ards  the  mining  town  the  deliberate  purpose  of  the 
Council  was  to  incite  these  semi-savage,  wholly  desper 
ate  miners  to  join  forces  with  us  in  our  rising  against 
the  Priest  Captain's  power. 


XXV. 

THE    GOLD-MIXERS    OF    HUITZILAN. 

As  we  rounded  a  mountain  spur  that  extended  a  long 
way  out  into  the  lake,  a  deep  bay  opened  to  us;  whicn 
bay  ran  close  in  to  the  cliffs  whereby  the  valley  was 
surrounded,  and  was  at  no  great  distance  from  tne 
Barred  Pass,  through  which  we  had  made  our  entry. 
At  the  foot  of  the  bay,  built  partly  upon  the  level  land 


286  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

near  the  water-side,  and  partly  upon  the  steep  ascent 
beyond,  was  the  town  of  Huitzilan — whereof  the  most 
curious  feature  that  at  first  was  noticeable  was  a  tall 
chimney,  whence  thick  black  smoke  was  pouring  forth, 
that  rose  above  a  stone  building  of  great  solidity  and 
of  a  very  considerable  size. 

On  archaeological  grounds,  the  sight  of  this  chimney 
greatly  astonished  me;  and  Rayburn,  who  was  a  very 
well-read  man  in  all  matters  connected  with  his  profes 
sion,  was  greatly  astonished  by  it  also;  for  the  chimney 
obviously  was  a  part  of  extensive  reduction-works,  and 
we  both  knew  that  such  complete  appliances  for  the 
smelting  of  metal,  as  seemed  from  this  sign  to  exist 
here,  were  supposed  to  be  the  product  of  a  high  state 
of  civilization  in  comparatively  modern  times.  As  for 
Young,  he  declared  that  the  chimney  gave  him  a  regu 
lar  jolt  of  homesickness ;  for,  excepting  that  it  was 
built  of  stone  instead  of  brick,  it  might  have  been,  for 
the  look  of  it,  transplanted  hither  directly  from  the  re 
gion  of  the  Back  Bay.  "  I  s'pose  we'll  be  hearin'  th' 
noon  whistle  next,"  he  said,  mournfully;  and  presently 
he  added:  "Do  you  know,  Professor,  I  b'lieve  I'm  be- 
ginnin'  t'  see  daylight  in  all  this  tall  talk  you  say  th' 
Colonel  has  been  givin'  us  about  th'  £  rebellions,'  as  he 
calls  'em,  that  go  on  here.  He  don't  mean  t'  close  our 
eyes  up,  th'  Colonel  don't,  for  he's  a  first-class  gentle 
man;  but,  bein'  born  an'  bred  a  heathen,  he  don't  know 
any  better.  What  he's  tryin'  t'  tell  us  about,  an'  can't, 
because  he  don't  know  th'  English  for  it,  is  strikes. 
That's  what's  th'  matter.  Miners  are  bound  t'  go  on 
strikes,  It's  their  nature,  an'  they  can't  help  it,  That 


THE    GOLD-MINERS    OF   HUITZILAK.  28^ 

chimbly  gives  th'  whole  thing  away.  You  just  tell  tn' 
Colonel  that  we've  got  down  t'  th'  hard-pan  an'  really 
know  what  he's  been  drivin'  at.  An'  t'  think  of  there 
bein'  strikes  in  Mexico !  I  didn't  b'lieve  that  a  Greaser 
had  backbone  enough,  or  ambition  enough,  t'  strike  at 
anything!" 

However,  as  I  had  no  great  amount  of  faith  in 
Young's  theory,  I  did  not  attempt  to  translate  to  Tizoc 
what  he  had  said  to  me;  nor  was  there  any  opportunity 
for  further  talk  at  that  time.  Already  the  foremost 
boats  of  the  flotilla  had  made  a  landing  at  a  well-buiit 
pier  that  extended  from  the  shore  into  deep  water;  ana 
a  minute  or  two  later  our  boat  also  pulled  in  to  the 
pier,  and  we  disembarked.  The  general  view  of  the 
town  that  I  then  had  showed  me  that  it  was  closely 
built  over  an  area  rather  more  than  half  a  mile  square; 
that  the  houses  for  the  most  part  were  mere  hovels,  of 
which  the  largest  could  not  contain  more  than  two 
small  rooms;  and  that  the  few  houses  of  a  better  sort 
were  within  the  strong  stone  wall  by  which  the  reduc 
tion-works  also  were  enclosed.  At  the  pier  where  we 
landed  a  boat  was  in  process  of  lading  with  bars  of 
gold  for  transport  to  the  Treasure-house  in  the  city; 
and  I  thought  that  I  never  had  seen  anywhere  more 
savage-looking  fellows  than  the  almost  naked  laborers 
by  whom  the  work  of  lading  was  carried  on.  Physical 
ly  these  men  were  magnificent  creatures — tall  and  well- 
shaped  and  vigorous,  and  the  ease  with  which  they  han 
dled  the  great  bars  of  gold  showed  how  enormous  must 
be  their  strength.  But  so  full  of  venomous  hate  were 
the  sullen  looks  which  they  cast  upon  us,  and  so  savage 


288  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

was  the  effect  of  their  coarse,  dishevelled  hair  falling 
down  over  and  partly  veiling  their  great  glittering 
eyes,  whence  these  angry  glances  were  shot  forth  at  us 
like  poisoned  darts,  that  I  was  thankful  to  see  that,  all 
told,  there  were  not  more  than  a  dozen  of  them,  and 
that  three  times  as  many  heavily  armed  soldiers  served 
as  their  guard.  And  looking  at  these  creatures,  who 
were  truly  less  like  men  than  dangerous  wild  beasts,  I 
could  not  wonder  at  the  grave  concern  which  Tizoc  had 
manifested  at  thought  of  the  risk  which  we  ran  in  tak 
ing  them  for  allies.  "  It's  as  easy  t'  start  'em,"  Young 
said,  when  he  came  to  an  understanding  of  the  situa 
tion,  "as  'tis  t'  start  a  freight -train  down  a  three  per 
cent,  grade.  But  what  I  want  to  know  is,  when  we 
want  'em  t'  stop,  how  in  th'  h — 11  are  we  ever  goin'  t' 
set  th' brakes?" 

Yet,  dangerous  to  ourselves  though  the  use  of  it 
must  be,  our  hopes  of  success  rested  mainly  upon  our 
ability  to  control  and  to  employ  effectively  this  savage 
material.  Fortunately,  it  was  not  the  whole  of  our  re 
liance  ;  and  it  was  our  intention  to  leaven  this  danger 
ous  lump  with  the  very  considerable  number  of  trained 
and  trustworthy  soldiers  that  we  had  available  as  the 
substantial  nucleus  of  our  fighting  force,  and  also  with 
the  larger  body  of  both  slaves  and  freemen — not  regu 
larly  drilled  soldiers,  to  be  sure,  yet  many  of  them 
trained  in  the  ways  of  war — that  we  counted  upon  to 
join  us  from  among  the  people  at  large. 

This  outline  of  the  plan  of  action  that  the  Council 
had  determined  upon  was  exhibited  to  us  by  Tizoc  dur 
ing  our  passage  down  the  lake;  and  I  was  glad  to  find 


THE    GOLD-MINERS    OF    HUITZILAN.  289 

that  Rayburn — for  whose  judgment  I  had  much  re 
spect  in  such  matters  —  was  disposed  to  think  well 
of  it. 

"  If  I  expected  to  stay  here,  Professor,  after  the  row 
was  over,"  he  said,  "  I  mightn't  be  quite  as  well  satis 
fied  with  this  plan  of  theirs  for  running  things.  The 
war  part  of  the  programme  is  all  right.  They  won't 
have  any  difficulty  in  getting  their  Tlahuicos  to  fight 
anything  hi  the  way  of  an  army  that  the  Priest  Cap 
tain  shows  up  with.  Fighting  is  just  what  will  please 
them  more  than  anything  else.  Where  the  trouble  is 
going  to  come  in  is  when  the  fighting  is  over  and  they 
go  in  for  reconstruction.  It's  one  thing  to  make  fight 
ers  out  of  this  sort  of  stuff,  but  it's  quite  another  thing 
to  make  respectable  citizens  out  of  it.  That's  where 
the  hitch  will  be.  But  as  we  don't  intend  to  settle 
down  in  this  valley — unless  we  find  that  there's  no  way 
out  of  it — we  needn't  bother  about  that  part  of  the  per 
formance  at  all.  That's  their  funeral,  not  ours.  So, 
for  my  part,  the  sooner  they  get  their  army  in  shape, 
and  get  the  fighting  part  settled,  the  better  I'll  be  sat 
isfied." 

To  do  the  members  of  the  Council  justice,  they  seem 
ed  to  be  even  more  eager  than  Rayburn  was  to  for 
ward  the  work  that  they  had  in  hand.  From  the  pier 
they  went  directly  to  the  enclosure  in  the  centre  of  the 
town,  within  which  was  the  building  ordinarily  occu 
pied  by  the  commandant  of  the  post  and  by  the  offi 
cials  of  the  civil  government;  and  in  this  place, Tizoc 
informed  us,  they  intended  immediately  to  organize  the 
new  government,  and  then  to  proceed  with  all  possible 
19 


290  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

despatch  to  make  arrangements  for  placing  an  army  in 
the  field. 

In  Tizoc's  company,  but  more  leisurely,  we  also  went 
on  to  the  Citadel — as  we  found  the  enclosure  about  the 
smelting-works  was  called — where  comfortable  quar 
ters  had  been  provided  for  us  in  the  same  building 
wherein  the  Council  was  housed.  Here  we  waited,  in 
somewhat  strained  idleness,  while  the  Council  carried 
on,  in  a  chamber  not  far  removed  from  us,  its  exciting 
work  of  destroying  a  government  that  had  endured  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years;  and  we  were  mightily 
surprised,  knowing  how  prodigious  was  the  change  that 
then  was  being  wrought  in  ancient  institutions,  by  ob 
serving  how  quietly  it  all  went  on.  The  murmur  of 
talk  that  came  to  us,  unchecked  by  any  intervening 
doors,  had  no  sound  of  excitement  or  of  anger  or  of 
violent  emotion  of  any  sort ;  and  I  could  not  but  hold 
in  admiration  the  calm,  self-contained  natures  of  these 
men  who  thus  equably  and  rationally  could  deal  with 
such  vastly  weighty  affairs. 

While  this  great  matter — which  could  end  only  in 
wild  commotion  and  fierce  battling — went  forward  in 
this  quiet  way,  Tizoc  opened  to  us  much  that  was  of 
curious  interest  touching  the  near-by  gold-mine  and 
they  who  mined  the  gold.  Of  the  existence  of  the 
mine,  he  said,  the  Aztlanecas  had  remained  ignorant 
for  many  generations  after  their  coming  into  the  val 
ley  ;  and  for  many  more  generations  but  little  gold 
had  been  taken  from  it,  because  the  metal  was  of  no 
value  to  his  people  save  for  the  making  of  ornaments. 
But  when  the  process  had  been  discovered  by  which 


THE    GOLD-MINERS    OF    HUITZILAN.  291 

this  metal  could  be  hardened,  and  so  made  serviceable 
for  all  manner  of  useful  purposes — and  this  the  more 
because,  by  the  manufacture  that  then  ensued  of  tools 
wherewith  the  rock  could  be  easily  worked,  mining  in 
a  large  way  became  possible — the  development  of  the 
mine  upon  a  great  scale  had  been  begun,  and  had  been 
continued  upon  a  constantly  increasing  scale  from  that 
time  onward.  All  the  earth  beneath  where  we  then 
were,  he  said,  was  honey-combed  with  passages  which 
followed  the  several  veins ;  and  of  these  there  seemed 
to  be  no  end  at  all,  for  ever  as  each  vein  was  exhaust 
ed  another  not  less  rich  was  found — and  thus  it  seem 
ed  as  though  all  the  substructure  of  that  great  mount 
ain  range  were  one  huge  mass  of  gold. 

What  the  measures  of  weight  were  with  which  he 
estimated  the  annual  output  of  the  mine,  I  could  not 
clearly  understand,  but  the  matter  was  made  approxi 
mately  plain  to  us  by  his  statement  that  the  daily 
product  of  the  mine  never  was  less  than  one  of  the 
great  bars  of  gold  that  we  had  seen  upon  the  pier  in 
process  of  carriage  to  the  Treasure-house  ;  and  that 
sometimes,  when  veins  of  extraordinary  richness  were 
encountered,  even  so  much  as  four  of  these  bars  had 
been  smelted  from  the  ore  that  the  mine  yielded  in  a 
single  day. 

"Those  bars  don't  weigh  an  ounce  less  than  two 
hundred  pounds  apiece,"  Rayburn  said,  when  I  had 
translated  to  him  what  Tizoc  had  told  me.  "  That 
makes  the  output  of  the  mine  not  less  than  three  tons 
a  month,  and,  in  a  rough  way,  a  ton  of  gold  is  worth 
just  about  half  a  million  of  dollars.  If  the  Colonel 


292  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

isn't  mixed  in  his  figures,  and  if  you've  translated  him 
straight,  Professor,  these  fellows  are  taking  out  some- 
wheres  in  the  neighborhood  of  twenty  millions  a  year." 

Young  gave  a  long  whistle.  "Great  Scott!"  he  ex 
claimed,  "that  just  is  an  all-fired  big  pile  of  money 
t'  be  wasted  on  a  lot  of  barelegged  heathen  critters 
like  these,  who  don't  know  th'  Ten  Commandments  by 
sight,  an'  who've  never  even  heard  of  a  cocktail !  D' 
you  know  what  I'm  goin'  t'  do,  Rayburn,  when  I  real 
ize  on  this  investment?  I'm  goin'  t'  buy  th'  Old  Col 
ony  Railroad,  just  for  th'  sake  of  bein'  able  t'  bounce 
th'  Superintendent.  He  bounced  me  after  that  freight 
smash -up — and  it  wasn't  my  fault  that  th'  operator  got 
mixed  an'  gave  me  th'  wrong  orders — and  I'll  give  him 
a  taste  o'  th'  same  kind.  Won't  it  just  paralyze  him 
when  he  gets  his  orders  t'  quit,  signed  c  Seth  Young, 
President,'  an'  finds  out  it's  th'  same  old  Seth  Young 
who  used  t'  run  Thirty-two  on  th'  Fall  River  division?" 

"  Hadn't  you  better  let  him  down  easy  by  telegraph 
ing  him  right  now  to  begin  to  look  out  for  a  new 
place?"  Rayburn  asked.  "We'll  wait  for  you  here, 
while  you  step  over  to  the  Western  Union  office  " — 
which  cool  comment  upon  Young's  enthusiastic  dis 
counting  of  a  bright  future  brought  the  gloomy  pres 
ent  so  clearly  before  his  mind  that  his  castle-building 
ended  suddenly,  and  he  lapsed  into  silence. 

But  great  though  our  wonder  was  at  the  prodigious 
quantity  of  precious  metal  that  this  mine  yielded  in 
each  year,  and  amazed  though  we  were  by  thought  of 
the  vast  store  of  treasure  that  the  valley  now  must 
bold,  I,  for  my  part,  felt  a  far  deeper  interest  in  what 


THE    GOLD-MINERS    OF    HUITZILAN.  293 

Tizoc  went  on  to  tell  us  concerning  the  men  by  whose 
toil  the  treasure  had  been  accumulated.  And,  truly, 
so  bitter  and  so  dreary  was  the  life  of  the  Tlahuicos 
who  were  forced  to  labor  here  unceasingly,  and  through 
so  long  a  period  had  they  been  thus  cruelly  dealt  with, 
that  it  seemed  to  me  there  must  rest  upon  all  the  Val 
ley  of  Aztlan  a  heavy  curse  that  only  some  signal 
act  of  expiation  could  remove.  And  the  coincidence 
struck  me  as  most  curious  that  here  among  the  Aztecs, 
wrought  by  themselves  upon  the  men  of  their  own  race, 
should  be  found  identically  the  same  cruelties  which 
the  Spaniards  practised  upon  the  Indians  whom  they 
enslaved  as  miners  in  New  Mexico  :  whereof  came  that 
fierce  outburst  of  revolt  two  hundred  years  ago,  when 
the  Pueblos  ravaged  with  sword  and  flame  the  whole 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  from  Taos  to  the  Pass  of  the 
North. 

There  was  small  ground  for  wonder  that  the  Tlah 
uicos,  thus  crushed  by  over-heavy  labor,  and  dealt  with 
as  though  they  were  not  men,  but  fierce  and  dangerous 
brutes,  should  cherish  at  all  times  in  their  breasts  a 
sullen  fire  of  mutiny ;  nor  that  on  every  occasion  at 
all  favorable  to  their  purposes  there  should  spring 
forth  from  the  glowing  embers  of  their  hatred  a  vivid 
and  consuming  flame.  Only  by  the  strength  and  the 
vigilance  of  the  guard  that  constantly  was  maintain 
ed  over  them  was  their  tendency  to  rebellion  held  in 
check;  and  even  the  guards  could  not  prevent  frequent 
outbreaks — which  ended  only  in  the  cruel  slaughter  of 
all  concerned  in  them — so  passionately  eager  was  the 
longing  of  these  desperate  creatures  for  revenge. 


294  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

Only  once,  a  vastly  long  while  past,  Tizoc  said,  had 
success  attended  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Tlahuicos 
to  release  themselves  from  their  cruel  slavery,  and  that 
they  then  eluded  the  vigilance  of  their  masters  was 
due  to  their  employment  of  strategy  against  force. 
The  whole  matter,  he  continued,  was  now  but  a  half- 
remembered  tradition,  yet  the  main  details  of  it  were 
clear.  In  that  far-back  time  a  vein  of  extraordinary 
richness  had  been  followed  for  a  very  long  distance  in 
the  direction  of  the  Barred  Pass  ;  and,  as  the  event 
proved,  the  gallery  was  carried  beyond  the  bars,  pass 
ing  far  beneath  them,  and  so  went  onward,  steadily 
rising,  until  an  outlet  was  had  into  the  canon.  That 
the  secret  of  this  outlet  might  be  kept  among  the  men 
who  had  opened  it,  these  slew  the  guard  that  watched 
over  them  and  thrust  his  body  out  into  the  canon,  thus 
most  effectually  placing  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
search  that  would  be  made  for  it ;  and  the  opening 
that  they  had  made  they  closed  carefully,  and  contin 
ued  a  little  way  onward  into  the  rock  the  gallery  in 
which  they  were  working :  so  that  the  superintendent 
of  the  mine  might  see  clearly  (what,  indeed,  was  the 
truth)  that  the  vein  of  ore  had  been  followed  to  its 
end. 

Tizoc  knew  not  how  long  a  time  passed  before  the 
Tlahuicos  made  use  of  the  way  of  escape  thus  opened 
to  them ;  but  their  flight  could  not  have  been  taken 
hastily,  because  it  included  a  very  great  number  of 
them,  and  included  also  carrying  with  them  large 
quantities  of  arms  for  warfare,  and  of  useful  house 
hold  stores.  He  could  say  certainly  no  more  than  that 


THE    GOLD-MINERS    OF    HUITZILAN.  295 

when  all  their  well-laid  plan  was  ready  to  be  executed, 
they  rose  against  the  soldiers  which  guarded  them 
with  such  suddenness  and  brave  violence  that  they 
succeeded  in  seizing  and  in  holding  the  Citadel ;  which 
gave  no  chance  for  grave  uneasiness,  for  the  officers  of 
the  force  thus  for  a  moment  driven  off  thought  that 
because  of  their  retiring  within  so  narrow  a  place  they 
speedily  must  surrender  for  dread  of  being  starved 
there;  and  it  was  held  to  be  but  a  sign  of  their  still 
greater  simplicity — since  thus  would  there  be  more 
hungry  mouths  to  fill — that  they  carried  their  women 
and  children  with  them  into  the  stronghold  where  they 
lay  besieged. 

But  so  strange  was  the  desolate  silence  that  hung 
over  the  place  into  which  so  great  a  multitude  had  re 
tired,  that  the  besiegers  presently  were  moved  by  it. 
to  a  wonder  wherein  was  a  strong  feeling  of  awe ;  and 
still  greater  was  the  marvel  that  they  had  to  ponder 
upon  when,  at  last,  meeting  with  110  opposition,  they 
broke  in  the  grating  that  barred  the  entrance  to  the 
Citadel,  and  found  within  the  enclosure  not  one  single 
living  soul !  And  so  cleverly  had  the  fugitives  closed 
the  wray  behind  them  that  a  long  while  passed  before 
it  was  known  certainly  what  had  become  of  this  living 
host  that,  as  it  seemed,  in  a  moment  had  vanished  from 
off  the  face  of  the  earth.  More  than  half  a  lifetime 
went  by  without  the  shedding  of  light  upon  this  mys 
tery  ;  and  it  seemed  as  though  a  ghost  had  risen  when 
one  day  a  very  aged  man  came  forth  from  that  long- 
abandoned  passage  in  the  mine  and  surrendered  him 
self  to  the  first  of  the  guards  whom  he  encountered — 


/96  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

and  then  told  that  he  was  a  priest  whom  the  fleeing 
rebels  had  carried  captive  with  them,  and  whom  they 
had  held  a  prisoner  through  all  these  many  years.  And 
he  told  also  how  the  rebels  had  made  their  home  in 
a  certain  fair  valley  that  was  shut  in  and  hidden  among 
the  mountains ;  and  how  that  they  had  built  a  great 
city — resting  fearless  in  the  conviction  that  they  were 
safe  from  harm.  By  the  heavy  toil  that  had  been 
needful  to  open  anew  the  way  into  the.  mine  from  the 
canon,  the  little  remnant  of  strength  in  this  old  man's 
body  had  been  exhausted ;  and  presently,  having  told 
his  story,  he  died. 

Then  it  was  that  the  Priest  Captain  and  the  Council 
who  ruled  in  that  ancient  time,  having  assured  them 
selves  by  the  sending  out  of  spies  that  all  which  the 
old  man  had  told  them  was  true,  planned  to  bring  upon 
the  rebels  a  very  terrible  vengeance;  which  was  to 
drown  them  all  in  their  city  by  letting  loose  upon  them 
the  waters  of  a  mighty  lake.  And  this  plan,  though  its 
accomplishment  was  not  arrived  at  until  two  full  cycles 
had  passed  away,  so  mighty  was  the  labor  that  it  in 
volved,  at  last  was  executed:  and  in  one  single  day 
every  living  creature  in  all  that  valley  was  overwhelm 
ed  by  the  flood  let  loose  into  it ;  and  where  so  great 
a  mass  of  teeming  life  had  been  there  remained  there 
after  only  the  desolate  silence  and  stillness  of  univer 
sal  death. 

It  was  with  long-drawn  breaths  that  Fray  Antonio 
and  I  listened  to  Tizoc's  telling  of  this  tradition,  which 
in  many  ways  was  far  more  real  to  us  than  it  possibly 
could  be  to  him  ;  for  we  but  lately  had  passed  through 


THE    GATHERING    FOR    AVAR.  297 

that  death- stricken  valley — and  ourselves  had  been 
like  to  die  there — and  every  feature  of  the  scene,  that 
he  could  but  vaguely  describe  to  us,  we  had  clearly  in 
our  minds.  And  thus  we  came  to  know  the  full  mean 
ing  of  the  great  catastrophe  whereof  we  had  seen  the 
outworking,  both  in  the  destruction  wrought  by  it  and 
the  way  of  its  accomplishment,  but  of  which  we  had 
divined  no  more  concerning  its  cause  than  that  in  some 
way  it  must  have  resulted  from  a  slowly  worked-out 
vengeance  prompted  by  a  most  malignant  hate. 


XXVI. 

THE    GATHERING    FOR    WAR. 

ALTHOUGH  the  whole  of  the  discussion  of  their  plan 
of  revolt  was  carried  on  by  the  Council  with  so  calm 
a  gravity,  there  was  enough  of  energy  and  of  quick 
movement  when  their  deliberations  came  to  an  end ; 
and  we  augured  well  of  the  result  because  they  thus 
had  delayed  their  action  until  their  plan  for  making  it 
effective  had  been  fully  matured.  The  whole  of  that 
first  day  in  Huitzilan,  and  much  of  the  following  night 
also,  was  given  to  arranging  clearly  what  must  be 
done  in  order  to  set  up  a  temporary  government  and 
to  get  an  army  together;  and  how  well  this  prelim 
inary  work  was  accomplished  was  shown  by  the  pre 
cision  and  celerity  with  which  the  plans  then  made 
were  executed  during  the  immediately  ensuing  days. 

During  this   period  we   had    ample   time   to    look 


298  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

around  us ;  and,  being  now  upon  a  most  friendly  foot 
ing  with  the  strange  people  among  whom  we  thus 
strangely  found  ourselves,  we  were  heartily  aided — 
so  far  as  this  was  possible  because  of  the  exigencies 
of  that  stirring  time — in  investigating  the  manner  of 
their  lives.  The  material  then  was  obtained  for  my 
chapter  on  the  "  House  Life  and  Domestic  Customs 
of  the  Aztecs";  and  the  knowledge  which  Rayburn 
gathered  (also  embodied  in  his  own  paper,  that  attract 
ed  so  much  attention  when  read  before  the  American 
Institute  of  Mining  Engineers)  he  has  permitted  me 
to  use  in  my  chapter  on  "  Mining  and  Metal-working 
among  the  Aztecs";  which  two  chapters  are  among 
the  most  noteworthy  in  my  Pre-  Columbian  Conditions 
on  the  Continent  of  North  America.  Rayburn,  in 
deed,  was  lost  in  wonder  as  he  came  to  understand 
how  far  scientific  investigation  had  been  carried  among 
this  isolated  people,  and  how  well  they  had  learned  to 
apply  their  scientific  knowledge  to  their  practical  af 
fairs.  In  many  matters,  to  be  sure,  they  fell  far  be 
hind  the  remainder  of  the  civilized  world;  but  a  large 
part  of  the  useful  knowledge  that  has  been  gained  by 
study  under  civilized  conditions  elsewhere  we  found 
here  also  as  the  fruit  of  independent  discovery.  In 
many  cases  the  discovery  was  identical  in  every  re 
spect  with  our  own.  Thus,  their  process  (the  adding 
of  hydrochloric  acid  to  a  neutral  solution  of  auric  chlo 
ride)  for  producing  from  gold  a  rich  purple  stain,  that 
was  employed  in  the  coloring  of  hard- wood  and  bone, 
was  precisely  that  which  Boyle  mentioned  in  1663  ; 
and,  as  nearly  as  I  could  determine  the  date,  it  was 


THE    GATHERING    FOR    WAR.  299 

about  that  very  time  that  they,  also,  first  effected  this 
combination.  In  the  matter  of  hardening  gold,  and 
thereafter  giving  it  all  the  qualities  of  tempered  steel, 
they  had  made  a  step  that  was  distinctly  in  advance 
of  anything  which  our  metallurgists  had  accomplished; 
and  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  the  belief  that — at  least 
among  the  priests — knowledge  had  been  gained  of  a 
process  quite  unlike  that  known  to  us  for  producing  a 
gold  fulminate.  I  was  not  so  fortunate  as  to  gain 
more  knowledge  of  this  matter  than  could  be  learned 
from  hearsay,  but  from  several  sources  I  heard  of  the 
splitting  asunder  of  a  certain  great  rock  by  the  Priest 
Captain — which  wonder  was  accompanied  by  a  thun 
derous  noise  and  a  gleam  of  flame  and  a  bursting  forth 
of  smoke — whereby  he  was  considered  to  have  proved 
that  the  aid  of  the  gods  was  at  his  command.  But  to 
my  mind,  and  also  to  Rayburn's,  the  proof  was,  rather, 
that  he  had  at  his  command — in  some  way  that  as  yet 
our  chemists  have  not  fathomed — the  aid  of  a  gold 
fulminate  that  could  be  controlled  in  use  as  readily  as 
we  control  gunpowder.  That  this  agent,  whatever  it 
might  be,  was  not  easily  available,  was  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  the  Priest  Captain  never  had  given  more 
than  this  single  exhibition  of  the  wonders  which  he 
could  accomplish  with  it ;  and  that  it  then  had  served 
his  purpose  well  was  shown  by  the  obvious  awe  with 
which  all  who  told  me  of  it  spoke  of  the  dreadful 
havoc  that  thus  visibly  was  wrought  by  what  they 
termed  the  thunder  of  the  gods. 

Indeed,  a  very  serious  difficulty  that  the  leaders  of 
the  revolution  had  to  overcome  was  the  unwillingness 


300  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

on  the  part  of  the  people  at  large  to  defy  the  power 
of  their  spiritual  chief;  which  feeling  among  the  upper 
classes  was  mainly  because  disobedience  to  the  Priest 
Captain  was,  in  effect,  heresy ;  while  among  the  lower 
classes  there  was  joined  to  a  like  horror  of  heresy  a 
very  lively  dread  of  the  punishment,  both  temporal 
and  spiritual,  that  the  Priest  Captain  could  bring  upon 
them  because  of  his  intimate  relations  with  the  super 
natural  beings  by  which  the  forces  of  the  world  were 
controlled. 

Yet  out  of  this  condition  of  affairs  arose  an  oppor 
tunity  that  Fray  Antonio  was  not  slow  to  make  the 
most  of.  Our  coming  into  the  valley  with  news  of 
the  outside  world  that  directly  controverted  the  Priest 
Captain's  claim  to  infallibility  gave  a  great  shock  to 
the  religious  faith  of  the  community,  and  so  induced 
a  willingness  to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  a  new  and 
purer  creed.  And  on  the  part  of  those  of  the  Council 
who  were  organizing  the  revolution — among  whom  re 
ligion  seemed  to  be  regarded  less  as  a  vital  fact  than 
as  a  matter  of  political  expediency — there  was  a  strong 
disposition  to  encourage  the  spread  of  doctrines  which 
obviously,  by  weakening  the  Priest  Captain's  hold 
upon  the  people,  would  increase  their  own  strength. 
Therefore,  Fray  Antonio  found  himself  free  to  preach 
to  this  heathen  multitude  the  glorious  Christian  faith ; 
and  that  he  was  granted  this  most  rare  and  signal  op 
portunity,  the  like  of  which  was  not  given  even  to  the 
blessed  Saint  Francis  himself,  so  filled  and  exalted  his 
soul  with  a  radiantly  joyful  thankfulness  that  he  was 
as  one  transformed.  And  his  holy  enthusiasm,  that 


THE    GATHERING   FOB   WAB.  301 

thus  made  every  fibre  of  his  being  vibrate  with  a  grate 
ful  gladness,  gave  him  also  so  eloquent  a  command  of 
beseeching  language  that  it  was  a  living  wonder  to 
perceive  how  his  inspired  words  penetrated  into  the 
minds,  darkened  by  superstitious  doctrines,  of  those  to 
whom  he  spoke,  and  so  sunk  into  their  hearts  and 
brought  the  restful  happiness  of  the  faith  Christian 
to  those  who  had  known  only  the  restless  terror  of 
idolatry  throughout  all  their  lives.  Like  a  pure  flame, 
the  doctrine  that  he  preached  ran  through  that  host 
of  the  heathen,  burning  out  from  among  them  the  im 
pure  creed  whereby  their  souls  had  been  held  in  a 
most  cruel  and  desolate  bondage,  and  giving  in  the 
place  thereof  the  tender  comfort  of  a  saving  Christian 
grace. 

Yet  the  very  fervor  of  Fray  Antonio's  preaching, 
and  the  strong  hold  that  the  gentle  doctrine  which  he 
set  forth  took  upon  the  hearts  of  the  multitude,  tended 
also  to  stir  up  against  him  a  lively  enmity  among  those 
who,  refusing  to  hearken  to  him,  remained  steadfast  in 
the  ancient  faith.  Many  such  there  were  among  us  at 
that  time  in  Huitzilan;  but  because  of  the  firm  grasp 
that  Fray  Antonio  had  upon  so  many  hearts,  and  also 
because  of  the  countenance  which  the  Council  gave 
him,  these  did  not  venture  to  assail  either  him  or  his 
doctrine  openly;  yet,  as  I  noted  at  times  the  evil 
glances  which  they  shot  forth  at  him — which  surely 
would  have  killed  him  could  he  thus  have  been  slain 
— I  was  filled  with  dread  that  hate  so  malignant  as 
here  was  shown  must  surely  find  expression  in  a  direct 
attempt  upon  his  life.  Fortunately,  there  no  longer 


302  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

were  any  priests  among  us.  Of  these  there  had  been 
a  considerable  number  in  Huitzilan  upon  our  first  com 
ing  there,  but  silently,  one  by  one,  they  had  disappear 
ed — going,  as  we  well  knew,  to  join  themselves  to  the 
force  which  the  Priest  Captain  was  gathering  against 
the  time  when  the  issue  between  us  would  be  settled 
by  the  arbitration  of  arms.  And  those  who  went  from 
our  camp  to  his  must  have  carried  with  them  news  of 
the  peril  that  menaced  the  ancient  faith  through  the 
new  faith  that  Fray  Antonio  preached  so  zealously  in 
such  burning  words;  for  of  his  knowledge  of  what 
Fray  Antonio  was  doing,  and  of  his  dread  of  what 
might  therefrom  result,  we  presently  had  proof  in  a 
way  that  filled  our  hearts  with  a  very  dismal  fear. 

All  the  while  that  this  curious,  and  to  me  most  in 
teresting,  conflict  between  a  primitive  and  a  highly  de 
veloped  religion  went  on,  the  more  practical  work  went 
on  also  of  establishing  a  new  government  and  of  organ 
izing  an  army  whereby  it  might  be  maintained.  So  far 
as  the  setting  up  of  a  government  was  concerned,  the 
matter  was  comparatively  easy;  for  the  majority  of 
the  Council  had  come  out  with  us  from  Culhuacan,  and 
these  had  but  to  adapt  to  the  requirements  of  the  new 
situation  the  governmental  machinery  that  already  was 
established  and  at  their  command.  And  they  were  sur 
prised  pleasurably  by  finding  how  readily  this  trans 
formation  was  effected;  for  among  the  higher  classes 
— from  which  classes  the  officials  of  the  government 
exclusively  were  drawn — the  feeling  of  hatred  against 
the  Priest  Captain,  begotten  of  his  many  acts  of  cruel 
ty  and  oppression  was  so  strong  that  the  opportunity 


THE    GATHERING    FOE    WAE.  303 

now  offered  to  turn  against  him  was  seized  upon  most 
gladly.  In  every  town  throughout  the  valley  the  em 
issaries  of  the  Council  were  warmly  welcomed ;  and 
presently  the  new  government  was  established  every 
where  save  in  the  capital  city  and  in  certain  villages 
upon  the  lake  border  lying  close  beneath  its  walls. 

The  work  of  organizing  an  army,  however,  was  a 
more  difficult  matter;  for  very  serious  obstacles,  both 
moral  and  material,  had  to  be  overcome  before  we  of 
the  revolutionary  faction  could  place  an  effective  fight 
ing  force  in  the  field.  Of  what  I  may  term  regular 
troops,  that  is  to  say,  thoroughly  drilled  and  disciplined 
soldiers,  we  could  count  upon  but  few;  for,  practically, 
the  whole  body  of  the  army  had  remained  faithful  to 
the  Priest  Captain  and  was  with  him  in  Culhuacan. 
For  the  most  part,  also,  the  regular  troops  scattered 
through  the  garrisons  of  the  various  towns  had  be 
taken  themselves  immediately  to  Culhuacan  upon  the 
acknowledgment  by  the  civil  officers  of  these  towns  of 
the  authority  of  the  new  government;  and  at  the  same 
time  had  departed  with  them  nearly  all  the  priests,  and 
such  few  persons  of  the  upper  classes  as  desired  the 
maintenance  of  the  ancient  order  of  things.  The  result 
of  which  general  movement  at  least  gave  us  the  ad 
vantage  of  carrying  on  unmolested  our  own  work  of 
concentrating  and  organizing ;  and,  so  far,  was  a  posi 
tive  service  to  us. 

As  the  nucleus  of  our  army  we  had  the  corps  that 
Tizoc  commanded,  the  highly  organized  body  of  troops 
charged  with  the  important  duty  of  guarding  the  Bar 
red  Pass;  and  we  had  also  the  few  hundreds  of  men 


304  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

who  had  come  out  with  us  from  Culhuacan.  From 
these  sources  we  were  able  to  draw  officers  to  command 
the  irregular  force,  largely  made  up  of  Tlahuicos,  that 
the  Council  rapidly  got  together  ;  while  for  the  organ 
izing  of  the  main  body  of  our  troops,  the  savages  who 
worked  in  the  mine,  the  bold  stroke  was  made  of  min 
gling  them  with  the  men  who,  until  then,  had  been  their 
most  relentless  enemies — the  soldiers  who  had  served  as 
their  guards.  That  it  was  possible  to  put  in  opera 
tion  this  daring  plan  was  due,  I  think,  in  great  part  to 
the  fact  that  both  guards  and  miners  were  led  to  accept 
the  extraordinary  fellowship  that  it  created  by  a  gen 
uine  shock  of  surprise ;  and  before  they  had  at  all  re 
covered  from  their  astonishment  their  interests  became 
identical,  through  their  common  need  of  defending 
themselves  against  a  common  enemy.  And,  further,  I 
am  well  convinced  that  the  Tlahuicos  had  been  in  part 
prepared,  before  our  coming  into  the  valley,  to  join  in 
the  revolt  that  under  any  circumstances  could  not  have 
been  much  longer  delayed.  In  regard  to  this  matter, 
Tizoc  persistently  evaded  my  questions ;  but  I  remem 
bered  very  distinctly  his  curious  hesitancy  when  he 
had  told  me  of  the  effective  part  that  the  servile  class 
could  be  made  to  take  in  the  event  of  a  rebellion;  and 
I  perceived  many  evidences  of  a  secret  understanding 
between  him  and  certain  of  the  miners  during  the  time 
that  the  gathering  for  war  was  going  on  in  Huitzilan. 
Therefore,  I  inferred  that  the  seeds  of  revolt  which 
germinated  so  readily  had  been  long  since  sown. 

Of  all  the  disabilities  under  which  we  then  labored, 
the  most  serious  was  the  lack  of  an  adequate  supply  of 


THE    GATHERING   FOE   WAK.  305 

arras.  The  great  arsenal  of  the  Aztlanecas  was  in  Cul- 
huacan ;  and  thus  nearly  the  whole  of  the  supply  of 
munitions  of  war  in  the  valley  was  in  the  Priest  Cap 
tain's  hands.  Fortunately,  the  shipment  of  hardened 
gold  that  we  had  intercepted — by  landing  at  the  pier 
whence  in  a  few  hours  it  would  have  been  despatched 
to  the  Treasure-house — gave  us  a  good  supply  of  raw 
material  out  of  which  spear-heads,  and  the  heads  of 
darts,  and  swords  could  be  made ;  and  night  and  day 
the  forges  blazed  in  Huitzilan  while  the  manufacture 
of  these  weapons  went  on.  Of  bows  and  arrows  it 
was  not  possible  to  make  many  in  that  short  time,  but 
of  slings  there  was  no  difficulty  in  making  enough  to 
supply  our  entire  force — and  among  these  people,  who 
are  wonderfully  skilful  in  the  use  of  it,  the  sling  is  a 
most  deadly  implement  of  war.  We  lacked  time,  also, 
to  make  any  large  number  of  shields,  and  our  defi 
ciency  in  this  respect  was  regarded  by  Tizoc,  and  by 
all  the  military  officers  who  were  with  us,  as  a  most 
serious  matter ;  for  not  only  would  our  men  without 
shields  be  the  more  easily  slain  in  battle,  but  their 
fighting  value  would  be  lessened  by  their  conscious 
ness  that  they  were  without  this  piece  of  furniture 
that  all  savage  races  hold  to  be  so  necessary  in  war. 

However,  of  defensive  armor  we  had  a  good  supply, 
for  it  chanced  that  in  the  Citadel  there  was  a  great 
store  of  cotton  cloth,  suitable  for  making  long  kirtles 
of  many  thicknesses  of  cloth  quilted  together ;  which 
kirtles  were  arrow  proof,  and  well  protected  a  man 
from  his  neck  downward  almost  to  his  knees.  Young 
was  disposed  to  think  but  lightly  of  this  curious 
20 


306  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-llOUSE. 

armor,  but  when  Tizoc,  to  convince  him  of  its  utility, 
demonstrated  its  power  to  resist  a  well-pointed  arrow 
shot  at  very  short  range  he  was  forced  to  confess  its 
entire  applicability  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  de 
signed. 

"  Tell  th'  Colonel  that  I  give  in,  an'  think  it  a  first- 
rate  notion,  Professor,"  he  said.  "  But  if  you  can  get 
it  into  his  head,  an'  I'm  afraid  you  can't,  just  tell  him 
that  when  this  barelegged  army  of  ours  gets  fitted  out 
with  those  little  night -shirts  they'll  look  for  all  th' 
world  like  a  lot  o'  fellows  who've  scrambled  out  of  a 
hotel  that's  caught  fire  in  th'  middle  o'  th'  night.  All 
that'll  be  wanted  t'  make  th'  thing  perfect  '11  be  a 
couple  o'  steam  fire-engines,  an'  a  crowd  with  all  their 
clothes  on,  an'  a  line  of  policemen.  I  guess  it's  goin' 
t'  be  one  o'  th'  funniest  lookin'  armies  that  was  ever 
seen  outside  of  a  lunatic  asylum.  What  I'd  like  to  do, 
Professor,  instead  o'  tryin'  t'  do  any  fightin'  with  it,  is 
just  t'  take  th'  whole  outfit  back  t'  th'  States  an'  make 
a  show  of  it.  I'd  get  Benito  Nichols  t'  go  in  with  me 
— he's  a  first-class  man,  Benito  is,  an'  he's  a  boss  hand 
as  a  show  manager — an'  we'd  call  it  '  Th'  Aztec  War 
rior  Army  an'  Circus  Combination,'  an'  we'd  just  rake 
in  th'  dollars  quicker'n  we  could  count  'em.  That 
makes  me  think  o'  that  show  we  were  talkin'  about 
makin'  with  Pablo  an'  his  burro."  Young's  voice 
changed  as  he  spoke,  and  there  was  a  huskiness  in  it 
as  he  added :  "  I  s'pose  by  this  time  there  ain't  much 
left  for  show-makin'  purposes  of  either  of  'em.  No,  I 
guess  I'll  stay  around  an'  take  a  hand  in  any  fightin' 
that's  goin'  on;  for  I'd  pretty  near  be  willin'  t'  be  killed 


THE    GATHERING    FOR    WAR.  307 

right  away  after  it  myself  for  th'  chance  t'  square 
things  with  that  old  devil  for  killin'  our  boy.  He  was 
a  good  boy,  Professor,  an' —  How  this  devilish  dust 
does  get  into  my  eyes  an'  make  'em  water."  With 
which  highly  irrelevant  remark — for  there  was  no  dust 
blowing  just  then — Young  suddenly  ceased  speaking 
and  walked  away. 

This  was  the  only  time  that  we  spoke  of  Pablo  while 
we  lay  at  Huitzilan,  for  talk  about  the  boy  only  in 
creased  the  bitter  sorrow  for  him  that  was  in  all  our 
hearts.  As  for  my  own  heart,  it  was  wellnigh  broken 
as  I  thought  that  but  for  me  his  gentle  life  would  still 
be  flowing  on  smoothly — as  I  had  found  it  flowing 
when,  in  an  evil  hour,  I  joined  his  fortunes  with  mine, 
and  so  had  brought  him  to  so  untimely  and  to  so  cruel 
a  death.  And  I,  too,  longed  for  the  fighting  to  begin 
that  I  might  avenge  him ;  for  the  accomplishment  of 
which  vengeance  I  was  not  merely  in  part,  but  alto 
gether  ready  to  yield  up  my  own  life. 

Indeed,  excepting  only  Fray  Antonio,  who  saw  in 
warfare  only  the  wickedness  and  the  cruelty  of  it,  we 
all  were  most  eager  for  our  inaction  to  end,  and  for 
the  battling  to  begin  that  would  give  us  opportunity 
to  let  the  life  out  of  some  of  those  by  whom  Pablo 
had  been  slain.  It  was  with  delight,  therefore,  that 
we  noted  the  rapidity  with  which  the  preparations  for 
the  impending  campaign  were  carried  forward,  and 
saw  how  each  day  the  disorderly  host  that  had  been 
gathered  at  Huitzilan  was  changing  from  a  confused 
mass  of  good  fighting  material  into  a  body  fairly  well 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  war.  It  was,  in  truth,  astun- 


308  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

ishing  to  us — for  we  could  not  well  comprehend  how 
essentially  warlike  were  the  instincts  of  this  people, 
and  how  quick,  therefore,  they  must  be  in  military 
matters — to  observe  the  promptness  that  was  shown 
in  getting  our  army  in  readiness  for  the  field.  And 
with  our  astonishment  came  also  a  comforting  convic 
tion  that  the  force  that  could  be  so  quickly,  and,  as  it 
seemed,  so  effectively  organized,  must  surely  hold  well 
together,  and  fight  well  together,  when  the  hour  for 
fighting  came. 


XXVII. 

AN   OFFER    OF   TEEMS. 

DURING  the  time  that  our  various  preparations  thus 
went  forward  we  had  no  direct  news  from  the  strong 
hold  of  the  enemy;  yet  many  vague  rumors  reached  us 
of  the  army  that  was  being  set  in  order  there  to  take 
the  field  against  us.  On  the  other  hand,  the  constant 
departure  from  among  us  of  those  who  were  loyal  to 
the  ancient  government  kept  the  Priest  Captain  well 
informed  of  all  that  was  in  progress  in  our  camp.  No 
effort  was  made  by  the  Council  to  prevent  these  de 
partures,  for  all  of  our  plans  were  working  so  well,  and 
our  forces  were  increasing  so  prodigiously,  that  it  was 
to  our  advantage  that  the  enemy  should  have  news  of 
our  rapidly  augmenting  strength ;  and  especially  was 
it  hoped  that  the  news  thus  carried  to  the  city  might 
incline  many  there  who  wavered  in  their  allegiance  to 
take  open  part  with  us — or,  at  the  least,  to  refuse  to 


AN    OFFER    OF   TERMS.  309 

take  part  against  us — and  that  in  this  way  there  might 
be  stirred  np  a  very  dangerous  spirit  of  mutiny  within 
the  enemy's  lines. 

The  plan  of  campaign  that  the  Council  had  adopted 
struck  me  as  being  an  exceedingly  prudent  one.  This 
was  that  we  should  not  attempt  an  attack  upon  the 
city — for,  indeed,  to  assail  such  fortifications  without 
artillery  would  have  been  utterly  hopeless — but  should 
wait  until  the  enemy  came  out  to  assail  us,  and  then 
meet  him  on  our  own  chosen  ground.  In  every  way 
this  plan  was  in  our  favor.  It  most  obviously  was  to 
our  advantage  to  delay  as  long  as  possible  the  battle 
that  was  inevitable,  and  that,  when  it  did  come,  must 
decide  the  fate  of  the  rebellion  finally.  Every  day  that 
this  was  deferred  was  a  substantial  gain  to  us,  in  that 
the  organization  of  our  army  was  thereby  rendered  the 
more  complete,  and  also  in  that  the  effective  hold  of 
the  new  government  upon  the  people  throughout  the 
valley  was  thereby  strengthened.  On  the  side  of  the 
enemy,  delay  would  produce  no  corresponding  gain, 
rather  would  it  tend  to  weaken  the  hold  of  the  Priest 
Captain  upon  those  who  remained  faithful  to  him ; 
and,  being  shut  up  writh  his  whole  army  and  a  multi 
tude  of  non-combatants  within  those  great  stone  walls, 
a  very  terrible  foe,  against  which  stone  walls  are  no 
defence,  presently  would  attack  him  in  the  shape  of 
hunger.  Therefore  we  had  only  to  wait — maintaining 
the  while  a  vigilant  patrol  of  guard-boats  on  the  lake, 
so  that  no  fresh  supplies  might  reach  the  garrison  in 
the  city — in  the  sure  conviction  that  our  foe  would  of 
his  own  accord  come  forth  to  give  us  battle,  and  that 


310  *HE   AZTfiC 

we  then  would  have  the  advantage  of  standing  whol 
ly  on  the  defensive  until  some  happy  turn  of  chance 
should  so  favor  us  that  we  would  risk  nothing  in  mak 
ing  an  assault. 

It  was  a  very  fortunate  thing  for  us  that  matters 
stood  in  this  way ;  for  wellnigh  the  whole  of  the  train 
ed  army  of  the  Aztlanecas  was  with  the  Priest  Cap 
tain,  and  against  this  well-disciplined  body  of  men  our 
own  hastily  assembled  and  imperfectly  organized  army 
would  have  made  but  a  poor  showing  had  we  met  on 
equal  terms.  Even  under  the  existing  circumstances, 
so  favorable  in  many  ways  to  our  success,  Tizoc  and 
the  other  military  officers  who  were  with  us  did  not 
at  all  disguise  their  anxiety  as  to  what  might  be  the 
outcome  of  the  battle  so  soon  to  be  fought ;  and  espe 
cially  did  they  dread  some  well-planned  stealthy  move 
ment  of  the  enemy,  by  which  our  camp  might  be  sud 
denly  set  upon  and  fairly  carried  before  our  own  un 
trained  forces  could  be  rallied  from  the  bewilderment 
and  confusion  into  which  they  would  be  thrown  by  the 
shock  of  such  surprise. 

Rayburn,  who  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  Indian  fight 
ing  in  his  time,  fully  shared  in  this  feeling  of  anxiety. 
"Indian  fights,  you  see,"  he  said,  "  are  not  like  any 
other  kind  of  fights.  The  side  that  wins  has  got  to  do 
it  with  a  whoop  and  a  hurrah.  Indians  haven't  got  any 
staying  power  in  them.  They  can't  hold  out  against 
anybody  who  stands  up  against  them  squarely,  and 
won't  be  scared  by  a  howling  rush  into  running  away. 
That's  the  reason  why  our  little  bit  of  an  army  at  home 
is  strong  enough  to  police  our  whole  Indian  frontier. 


AN    OFFER    OF   TEEMS.  311 

A  single  troop  of  our  boys — if  the  fighting's  square, 
and  they  haven't  been  corralled  in  an  ambush — can 
stand  off  a  whole  tribe;  and  they  can  do  it  because 
they  just  get  their  backs  together  and  won't  give  in. 
What  bothers  me  about  the  fight  that  we're  going  to 
have  is  that  the  regulars  are  on  the  other  side.  Of 
course,  being  Indians  too,  regulars  like  these  don't 
amount  to  much ;  but  they  are  bound  to  be  a  long 
chalk  better  than  this  rowdy  crowd  of  ours.  We've  got 
a  pretty  fair  chance  to  win,  because  we're  in  a  strong 
position,  and  because  our  people  mean  to  wait  until 
the  other  fellows  come  at  'em ;  but  I  tell  you  what  it 
is,  if  ever  they  manage  to  get  inside  here,  or  if  ever 
we  go  outside  after  them — that  is,  while  they're  fresh 
and  full  of  fight  —  it's  bound  to  be  all  day  with  us. 
These  miners,  and  the  rest  of  this  Tlahuico  outfit,  will 
fight  like  wild-cats  as  long  as  they're  on  top,  but  every 
bit  of  fight  will  go  right  out  of  them  the  minute  they  find 
that  they're  beginning  to  get  underneath.  That's  the 
Indian  way.  I'm  trying  hard  to  believe  that  our  crowd 
will  whip  the  other  crowd ;  but  I  must  say,  Professor, 
that  I'm  not  betting  on  it." 

"Well,  I'm  bettin'  on  it,  and  bettin'  on  it  high,"  said 
Young.  "  I  don't  pretend  t'  know  as  much  about  this 
sort  o'  thing  as  Rayburn  does ;  but  I  do  think  I  know 
a  live  devil  when  I  see  one — an'  these  miners  are  about 
as  lively  an'  about  as  devilly  as  anything  that  ever 
broke  loose  from  hell.  They're  just  as  full  o'  th'  wick 
edest  sort  o'  fight  as  they  can  stick  in  their  ugly  skins, 
an'  they're  just  sick  for  a  chance  t'  let  it  get  out  of 
'em.  All  we've  got  t'  do  is  t'  worry  th'  other  crowd 


312  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

for  a  while  by  lettin'  'em  monkey  around  tryin'  t'  bag 
us;  an'  then,  when  they've  been  pretty  well  shot  off, 
an'  are  gettin'  tired,  just  make  a  rush  for  'em  an'  scoop 
'em  in.  Regulars  or  no  regulars,  these  miners  '11  go 
through  'em  like  a  limited  express ;  an'  th'  first  thing 
th'  Priest  Captain  knows  we'll  have  walloped  him  right 
smack  out  o'  th'  baggy  things  he  wears  on  his  feet  an' 
thinks  are  boots.  That's  th'  size  of  it,  Rayburn.  That's 
what's  goin'  t'  happen  right  here — an'  don't  you  forget 

it!     An'  then,  if  there's  any  way  out  o'  this  d n 

valley,  we'll  load  up  with  dollars  an'  pull  out  for 
home." 

For  my  own  part,  I  was  not  disposed  to  be  either 
so  doubtful  as  Rayburn  or  so  sanguine  as  Young.  In 
what  each  of  them  said  there  was  much  truth,  and  my 
inference  from  such  of  the  facts  in  the  case  as  were 
within  my  knowledge  and  my  comprehension  was  that 
the  chances  for  and  against  our  success  were  very  even 
ly  divided.  Had  I  listened  only  to  the  promptings 
of  my  hopes,  I  should  have  entertained  no  doubt  what 
ever  touching  the  certainty  of  our  victory ;  for  I  was 
at  that  time  so  elated  by  the  knowledge  that  I  had  ac 
quired,  and  that  each  day  was  increased  by  the  acqui 
sition  of  new  and  most  precious  facts,  whereby  a  flood 
of  light  was  let  in  upon  what  hitherto  had  been  hope 
lessly  dark  places  in  Aztec  archaeology,  that  I  was  dis 
posed  to  believe  as  firmly  as  ever  did  the  first  Napo 
leon  in  the  assured  ascendency  of  my  lucky  star.  How 
ever,  I  did  not  wholly  permit  my  wits  to  be  run  away 
with  by  the  joy  begotten  of  my  truly  wonderful  dis 
coveries;  and  I  strove  even  to  contemplate  calmly  the 


AN    OFFER    OF   TERMS.  313 

possibility  that  I  might  myself  be  slain  in  the  battle 
that  was  so  close  upon  us ;  and  that  thus  the  exceed 
ingly  valuable  information  which  I  had  acquired  would 
be  lost  to  the  world,  and  to  myself  would  be  lost  the 
honorable  fame  due  me  for  having  gathered  it.  Yet  I 
regret  to  state — for  until  that  time  I  had  entertained 
unreservedly  the  belief  that  I  truly  was  a  philosopher 
— my  attempt  at  calm  contemplation  of  this  dismal 
and  far  from  improbable  combination  of  evil  circum 
stances  had  no  other  effect  upon  me  than  to  throw  me 
into  a  most  violent  rage.  It  seemed  to  me  so  stupidly 
unreasonable  that  some  mere  common  brute  of  an  Ind 
ian,  by  the  crude  process  of  splitting  my  skull  open, 
might  deprive  me,  and  through  me  the  scientific  world, 
of  the  priceless  knowledge  that  with  much  effort  I  had 
stored  within  my  brain. 

But  all  thought  of  my  own  fortunes,  and  of  this  pos 
sible  sudden  cutting  of  my  life-strings,  presently  was 
thrust  aside  by  the  inroad  of  another  matter  that  was 
of  far  more  serious  moment  to  me,  inasmuch  as  there 
was  involved  in  it  a  menace  against  the  life  of  one 
of  my  companions ;  and,  indeed,  this  matter  was  one 
which  startled  our  whole  camp,  for  it  was  nothing  less 
than  a  formal  offer  on  the  part  of  the  Priest  Captain 
to  condone  the  rebellion,  and  to  compromise  with  the 
rebels,  on  certain  far  from  exacting  terms. 

The  envoy  sent  to  treat  with  us  came  in  a  manner 
befitting  his  dignity  and  the  importance  of  his  mission, 
having  a  considerable  retinue  with  him  in  his  barge, 
and  being  himself  a  grave  and  dignified  man  well  ad 
vanced  in  years.  Two  of  our  guard-boats  acconv 


314  THE    AZTEC    TREASUKE-HOUSE. 

panied  his  barge  across  the  lake,  and  he  alone  was 
permitted  to  land  in  Huitzilan.  Being  led  before  the 
Council,  he  delivered  himself  briefly  of  his  message, 
and  added  to  it  neither  argument  nor  comment  of  his 
own.  The  Priest  Captain,  he  said,  desiring  to  avoid 
the  shedding  of  blood  among  brethren,  was  willing  to 
forgive  the  wrong  already  committed,  and  was  willing 
even  to  concede  in  part  the  demands  made  by  the  reb 
els,  in  consideration  of  the  acceptance  by  those  now 
in  arms  against  him  of  certain  very  easy  terms.  For 
his  part,  he  would  yield  in  so  far  as  to  restore  the 
custom  of  permitting  parents  to  buy  back  their  own 
children,  and  so  to  save  them  from  being  sacrificed  or 
from  becoming  slaves;  and  he  would  withdraw  also 
his  claim  to  the  exercise  of  certain  rights  (which  need 
not  here  be  specified)  in  civil  matters,  to  which  a  coun 
ter-claim  was  set  up  by  the  Council.  In  return  for 
these  concessions,  he  demanded  that  the  army  raised 
by  the  rebels  should  be  immediately  disbanded;  that 
order  should  be  restored  in  Huitzilan  by  returning  the 
miners  to  their  work,  and  the  Tlahuicos  generally  to 
their  masters  throughout  the  valley;  and  that  the  arms 
which  had  been  manufactured  should  be  turned  over 
to  the  keeper  of  the  arsenal  in  Culhuacan.  The  final 
demand  made  by  the  Priest  Captain  related  to  our 
selves;  and  the  Council  was  given  to  understand  that 
upon  its  punctual  and  exact  fulfilment  the  whole  of 
the  negotiation  must  depend.  Young  and  Rayburn 
and  I,  the  envoy  said,  must  be  thrust  out  through  the 
Barred  Pass,  whence  we  came,  and  there  left  to  shift 
for  ourselves;  Fray  Antonio  must  be  without  delay 


AN    OFFER    OF    TERMS.  315 

surrendered — that  the  dreadful  sin  that  he  had  commit 
ted  by  preaching  vile  doctrines,  subversive  of  the  true 
faith,  might  be  punished  in  so  signal  a  manner  that  the 
gods  whom  he  had  outraged  would  be  appeased. 

Both  Fray  Antonio  and  I  were  present  in  the  Coun 
cil  chamber  when  the  envoy  delivered  his  message; 
and  when  this  final  demand  was  made — hearing  which 
made  me  grow  sick  and  faint,  so  keen  was  the  pang 
of  sorrow  that  it  caused  me  —  I  turned  towards  him 
quickly,  expecting  that  he  also  would  feel  the  hurt  of 
the  blow  which  through  him,  because  of  my  great  love 
for  him,  had  stricken  me  so  grievously.  But  so  far 
from  being  at  all  cast  down  by  the  knowledge  thus 
rudely  conveyed  that  a  very  cruel  death  menaced  him, 
there  was  upon  his  face  a  look  of  such  joyful  elation, 
of  such  rejoicing  triumph,  that  it  seemed  as  though 
the  very  greatest  happiness  that  life  could  hold  for  him 
had  been  thrust  suddenly  within  his  grasp. 

Within  the  Council,  and  outside  of  it  also,  when 
the  terms  which  the  envoy  offered  were  spread  abroad, 
there  was  at  once  aroused  a  very  hot  antagonism  be 
tween  contending  factions  in  regard  to  the  wisdom  of 
placing  trust  in  the  Priest  Captain's  promises,  and  to 
the  justice  of  yielding  to  his  demands.  So  far  as  the 
Council  was  concerned,  its  members  having  no  espe 
cial  regard  for  our  welfare  now  that  we  had  served 
their  purpose,  the  slaying  of  Fray  Antonio,  and  the  ex 
pulsion  from  the  valley  of  the  rest  of  us,  were  trifling 
matters  which  well  enough  might  be  conceded  if  there 
by  peace  might  be  secured.  The  matter  of  importance 
that  this  body  had  to  consider  was  how  far  the  Priest 


316  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Captain  could  be  trusted  to  fulfil  promises  made  to 
rebels  in  arms,  when  these  same  rebels  voluntarily 
had  submitted  to  disarmament  and  were  at  his  mercy; 
and  on  this  essential  point  the  whole  debate  that  fol 
lowed  turned.  The  faction  that  favored  disarmament 
insisted  that  such  yielding  was  not  surrender,  inasmuch 
as  the  Priest  Captain  had  conceded  all  that  the  rebels 
had  asked ;  while  those  of  the  faction  that  favored  war 
rested  their  case  on  the  ground  that  the  promises  of 
concession  were  made  only  to  be  broken,  and  that 
this  sudden  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  Priest  Cap 
tain  to  grant  what  he  had  heretofore  so  persistently  re 
fused  was  proof  that  he  recognized  the  hopelessness 
of  his  position,  and  so  was  seeking  to  retain  by  craft 
the  power  that  he  no  longer  could  hold  by  force. 
These  latter,  therefore,  urged  that  his  false  promises 
should  not  be  heeded;  and  that  the  matter  at  issue 
should  be  settled  surely  and  finally  by  carrying  to  a  tri 
umphant  conclusion  the  war,  for  the  waging  of  which 
all  needful  preparations  had  been  made. 

The  debate  upon  this  matter  continued  throughout 
the  whole  day  without  any  conclusion  being  arrived 
at,  and  we  listened  to  it — Fray  Antonio  and  I  trans 
lating  to  the  others — with  a  very  earnest  interest,  in 
asmuch  as  the  outcome  of  it  all  might  be  the  instant 
slaying  of  one  of  us,  and  for  the  rest  of  us  an  im 
prisonment  in  wild  fastnesses  among  bleak  mountains 
for  what  was  like  to  be  the  whole  remainder  of  our 
lives.  When  night  came,  and  the  Council,  being  still 
unresolved,  broke  off  its  session  until  the  day  follow 
ing,  we  came  back  to  our  quarters  and  there  talked 


AN    OFFER    OF   TEEMS.  317 

over  the  situation,  and  not  cheerfully,  among  our 
selves. 

"  Even  if  these  fellows  understood  algebra,"  said 
Rayburn,  "  I  don't  see  how  they  could  get  an  answer 
to  the  problem  that  they're  trying  to  work.  All  the 
ie's  that  ever  were  made  are  not  enough  to  represent 
an  unknown  quantity  like  the  Priest  Captain ;  and  it 
simply  is  not  in  the  conditions  of  the  case  that  they 
possibly  can  know  what  allowance  to  make  for  the 
factor  of  error.  For  the  last  three  hours,  as  far  as  I 
can  make  out,  they've  just  been  talking  in  a  circle, 
and  going  over  and  over  the  same  ground.  The  size  of 
the  business  is  that  half  of  them  believe  the  Priest  Cap 
tain  is  telling  the  truth,  and  the  other  half  believe  that 
he  is  lying.  This  is  a  matter  of  conviction ;  it  is  not  a 
thing  that  they  can  argue  about.  As  far  as  I  can  see, 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  them  from  keeping  on  talk 
ing  without  getting  anywhere  for  the  next  twenty 
years." 

"  Well,  all  I  can  say,"  said  Young,  "  is  that  if  they'll 
put  me  in  th'  cab,  an'  let  me  run  their  train  for  'em, 
I'll  get  it  up  this  grade  in  no  time ;  an'  what's  more, 
I'll  just  take  it  down  th'  other  side  o'  th'  divide  a-kitin'! 
What's  th'  matter  with  th'  Priest  Captain,  an'  only 
half  of  'em  have  th'  sense  t'  see  't,  is  that  he's  just 
solidly  lyin'.  He's  been  lyin'  to  'em  from  away  back, 
I  reckon  ;  an'  he's  lyin'  to  'em  now  ;  an'  he'll  keep 
on  lyin'  to  'em  right  smack  along  till  he  gets  t'  th' 
end  of  his  run.  If  they're  fools  enough  t'  believe  him 
they're  bound  t'  get  left  th'  worst  kind.  They've  got 
him  in  a  hole  now,  an'  he  knows  it — an'  that's  more'n 


318  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

they  do,  t'  judge  from  th'  way  they're  goin'  on.  I  did 
have  some  respect  for  that  Council.  So  far,  they've 
managed  things  first-rate.  They've  run  in  advance  o' 
their  schedule  right  along,  an'  they've  kep'  up  a  rattlin' 

head  o'  steam  with  mighty  d n  bad  coal.     But  if 

they  really  mean  t'  draw  their  fires,  just  when  they 
ought  t'  put  on  th'  forced  draught  an'  let  her  go  for 
all  she's  worth,  I  must  say  I  haven't  any  more  use  for 
'em.  Seein'  'em  shilly  -  shallyin'  around  like  they're 
doin'  now,  when  they  ought  t'  be  takin'  their  coats  off 
an'  sailin'  in,  just  makes  me  sick !" 

Fray  Antonio — whose  habit  of  quiet  was  such  that 
he  rarely  sought  to  take  part  in  the  talks  that  we  had 
in  English  among  ourselves — somewhat  surprised  me 
by  asking  me  to  translate  to  him  what  Young  and  Ray- 
burn  had  been  saying;  and  when  he  had  heard  it  all 
he  was  silent  for  a  while,  and  evidently  was  engaged 
in  earnest  thought.  At  last,  speaking  very  gravely,  he 
asked  us  if  we  greatly  feared  being  thrust  out  from 
the  valley  in  case  the  Council  decided  to  accept  the 
Priest  Captain's  terms ;  and  without  giving  us  a  chance 
to  answer,  he  bade  us  remember  that  we  had  not  at  all 
explored  the  last  valley  that  we  had  passed  through 
before  we  entered  the  canon  that  ended  at  the  Barred 
Pass,  and  that  from  it  there  well  might  be  some  outlet 
through  which  we  could  return  to  the  civilized  world ; 
and  even  were  we  forced  to  end  our  days  in  it,  he  con 
tinued,  speaking  quickly  and  urgently,  a  much  worpe 
fate  might  come  to  us ;  for  the  valley  was  a  bright  and 
beautiful  one,  as  we  had  seen,  and  had  in  it  an  abun 
dant  supply  of  food,  Would  living  there,  he  asked,  be 


AN    OFFER    OF   TERMS.  310 

any  worse  for  us  than  living  where  we  then  were — 
where  we  were  equally  shut  in?  And  even  supposing 
that  the  war  ended  in  victory  for  us,  and  that  our  al 
lies  gave  us  entire  freedom  of  action,  what  more  could 
we  do  than  end  our  days  in  the  Valley  of  Aztlan,  or 
else  go  back  to  that  other  valley  and  search  for  an 
outlet  thence  whereby  we  could  get  into  an  open  way 
among  the  mountains,  and  so  once  more  to  our  homes? 
And  then,  still  denying  us  opportunity  to  answer,  he 
went  on  to  speak  of  the  pain  and  misery  and  despair 
ing  sorrow  that  the  threatened  war  would  bring ;  and 
then,  more  gently,  of  the  duty  that  pressed  upon  us 
of  averting  this  calamity,  that  was  also  a  crime,  even 
though  to  do  so  we  must  sacrifice  hopes  and  wishes 
very  dear  to  our  hearts. 

"What  th' dickens  is  th' Padre  drivin'  at,  anyway?" 
Young  exclaimed ;  "  I  don't  ketch  on  at  all." 

"No  more  do  I,"  said  Rayburn.  "It's  a  first-rate 
sermon  that  he's  giving  us,  but  I  don't  see  where  he 
means  the  moral  of  it  to  fetch  up." 

For  myself,  so  closely  were  Fray  Antonio  and  I 
bound  together  by  bonds  of  sympathy,  I  saw  but  too 
plainly  what  he  meant  should  be  the  outcome  of  his 
discourse ;  and  I  was  not  surprised,  therefore — though 
hearing  thus  plainly  expressed  in  words  what  I  had 
been  dreading,  sent  a  dull,  cold  pain  into  the  very 
depths  of  my  heart — when  he  unfolded  to  us  the  whole 
of  the  plan  that  he  had  been  forming  within  his  mind. 
What  he  said  was  said  very  simply,  and  with  a  loving 
sorrow  for  the  pain  that  might  come  to  us  through 
shaping  our  actions  in  accordance  with  his  strong 


320  THE    AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

desire ;  and  this  desire  was  :  that,  of  our  own  free-will, 
we  should  retire  from  the  valley  by  the  way  that  we 
came  thither,  and  so  leave  the  Council  free  to  accept 
unhesitatingly  the  Priest  Captain's  terms. 

"And  what  of  yourself?"  I  asked;  for  I  felt  within 
me  a  strong  conviction  that  for  himself  he  had  in  view 
a  very  different  fate. 

He  hesitated  for  a  moment  before  answering  me,  and 
his  color  changed  a  little ;  and  then  an  unwonted  rud 
diness  gave  animation  to  his  face,  and  a  light  of  glad 
and  strong  resolve  shone  in  his  eyes  as  he  replied,  in  a 
voice  that  was  very  low,  and  at  tlie  same  time  very 
clear  and  firm :  "  I  shall  go  to  the  Priest  Captain,  in 
Cuihuacan!" 

"  And  so  go  to  your  death,"  I  said,  speaking  broken 
ly,  for  the  pain  that  his  words  caused  me  went  through 
me  like  a  knife-thrust. 

"Say,  rather,"  Fray  Antonio  answered,  "that  I  go 
to  win  the  life,  glorious  and  eternal,  into  which  neither 
death  nor  sin  nor  sorrow  evermore  can  come !" 


XXVIII. 

THE    SURRENDER   OF  A  LIFE. 

KNOWING  as  I  did  Fray  Antonio's  resolute  nature, 
and  understanding  far  more  clearly  than  it  was  possi 
ble  for  the  others  to  understand  the  heroic  impulses 
which  stirred  within  him,  I  took  no  part  in  the  attempt 
that  they  then  made  to  oppose  the  purpose  which  he 


THE    SUEKENDKE    OF    A    LIFE.  321 

had  declared.  But  when  they  somewhat  shifted  their 
position — perceiving  how  hopeless  was  their  effort  to 
shake  by  argument  his  firm  resolve — and  sought  to  win 
him  to  their  way  of  thinking  by  consenting  to  leave  the 
valley  if  only  he  would  accompany  them,  then  I  most 
earnestly  joined  my  entreaties  to  theirs.  But  no  more 
by  entreaty  than  by  argument  was  Fray  Antonio  to  be 
moved. 

And,  in  truth,  there  was  a  logical  consistency  in  what 
he  urged  in  answer  to  us  that,  much  though  we  might 
resent  it,  we  yet  were  compelled  to  respect.  He  had 
come  with  us,  he  said,  for  the  single  purpose  of  preach 
ing  the  saving  grace  of  Christianity  to  heathen  souls 
which  otherwise  would  perish  utterly  in  their  idolatry. 
And  this  was  not  a  matter  wherein  he  had  any  right  of 
election,  but  wras  a  solemn  duty  that  the  vows  by  which 
he  was  bound  compelled  him  to  fulfil.  He  was  not 
free,  therefore,  as  we  were  free,  to  consider  side  issues 
relating  to  his  personal  well  -  being  or  to  mere  expe 
diency  ;  his  sole  endeavor  must  be  to  accomplish  by 
the  most  efficient  means  the  duty  wherewith  he  was 
charged.  It  was  evident,  he  urged,  that  should  there 
be  war  in  the  valley  the  chance  for  the  further  spread 
of  Christian  doctrine  would  be  scant;  for  the  seed  that 
he  had  sown,  and  that  already  was  well  rooted  in  many 
hearts,  would  die  quickly  and  be  utterly  lost  in  the  foul 
growth  of  evil  passions  which  would  spring  up  rank- 
ly  amid  this  bloody  strife.  But  if  the  war  could  be 
averted,  not  only  would  these  people  be  spared  the 
misery  that  war  must  bring  upon  them,  and  the  crime 
also  of  slaying  each  other,  but  their  hearts  would 


322  THE   AZTEC  T&EASURE-HOUSE. 

remain  open  to  the  gentle  doctrine  that  he  had  taught ; 
and  his  willingness — should  such  sacrifice  be  necessa 
ry — to  yield  his  life  that  peace  might  be  preserved, 
would  force  upon  them  strongly  the  conviction,  tend 
ing  thus  to  their  own  strengthening,  of  his  faithful 
trust  in  the  creed  which  he  avowed.  And  it  well  might 
happen,  he  said,  that  such  grace  would  be  given  him 
that  even  within  the  very  stronghold  of  the  heathen 
faith  he  might  win  souls  to  the  purer  faith  which  it 
was  his  glorious  privilege  to  preach  and  still  remain 
unharmed;  in  proof  of  which  possibility  he  cited  the 
case  of  the  blessed  St.  Januarius,  whom  the  lions  re 
fused  to  devour.  But  whatever  might  be  the  outcome 
of  thus  yielding  himself  into  the  Priest  Captain's  hands, 
his  duty  was  so  clear,  he  declared  firmly,  that  no  eva 
sion  of  it  was  possible.  And  what  he  purposed  doing, 
he  said,  finally ;  was  but  what  countless  of  his  brethren 
had  done  in  the  course  of  the  six  centuries  since  the 
founding  in  Assisi  of  the  Order  to  which  they  and  he 
belonged — and  precisely  was  it  what  was  done  by  the 
glorious  proto-martyr  of  Mexico,  San  Felipe  de  Jesus, 
who  boldly  carried  the  Christian  faith  among  the  hea 
then,  and  so  died  for  that  faith  upon  the  cross  in  Japan. 

Rayburn  was  far  from  willing  to  yield  to  this  line 
of  argument;  yet  he  understood  it,  as  I  did  also,  and 
perceived  that  it  was  the  only  logical  outcome  of  the 
only  premises  which  Fray  Antonio  would  recognize. 
Young,  on  the  other  hand,  did  not  in  the  least  under 
stand  it,  and  Fray  Antonio's  reasoning  simply  threw 
him  into  a  rage. 

"  It's  all  d n  nonsense,"  he  said,  "  for  th'  Padre 


THE    SURRENDER    OF    A    LIFE.  323 

t'  talk  about  his  duty  towards  a  set  o'  critters  like  th' 
Priest  Captain's  crowd.  What's  th'  life  o'  that  whole 
outfit  worth  compared  t'  one  life  like  his  ?  He  might 
just  as  well  sit  down  an'  chop  his  own  head  off  as  go  in 
among  those  fellows ;  an'  he  knows  it,  too.  I  never 
heard  o'  th'  man  he's  talkin'  about  who  didn't  get  eat 
up  by  th'  lions — somebody  in  th'  show  business,  I  s'pose 
— but  if  he  thinks  there'll  be  anything  worth  speakin' 
of  left  of  him  two  hours  after  he  gets  back  into  that 

city,  he's  makin'  a  pretty  d n  big  mistake.    Oh,  I  say, 

Professor,  we've  got  t'  stop  this.  Th'  Padre's  off  his 
head,  that's  all  there  is  to  it;  an'  we've  got  t'  look  after 
him  till  he  braces  up  an'  gets  sensible  again.  I'll  do 

anything  reasonable  that  he  wants,  but  I'll  be  d d 

if  I'm  goin'  t'  stand  by  doin'  nothin'  while  he  cuts  his 
own  throat !" 

Young  was  quite  ready,  I  am  sure,  to  resort  to  the 
radical  measure  of  clapping  Fray  Antonio  into  a  strait- 
jacket  ;  and  had  the  opportunity  arisen  for  bringing 
their  difference  of  opinion  to  a  practical  issue  I  am 
confident  that  we  should  have  witnessed  an  exceeding 
ly  curious  conflict,  in  which  heroic  self-devotion  would 
have  struggled  with  a  rough  but  very  honest  love. 
And  that  Fray  Antonio  anticipated  such  a  conflict  was 
shown  by  his  taking  effective  measures  to  render  it  im 
possible.  During  the  remainder  of  that  day  he  stead 
fastly  refused  to  discuss  the  matter  further;  not  harsh 
ly,  but  by  shifting  away  into  other  channels  our  earn*,  st 
talk.  Only  at  night,  before  we  lay  down  to  sleep,  of 
his  own  motion  he  turned  once  more  to  the  matter; 
when  he  briefly  had  exhibited  to  us  again  the 


324  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

motives  which  urged  him  forward  upon  a  way  so  peril 
ous,  he  begged  that  we  would  not  think  ill  of  his  insist 
ing  upon  traversing  our  wishes,  but  that  once  more  we 
would  clasp  hands  with  him  in  sign  of  our  forgiveness 
and  continued  love. 

So  tender  was  the  mood  that  came  upon  us  with  his 
gentle  words  that  none  of  us  well  could  answer  him; 
and  this  he  understood  as  in  turn  we  took  his  hand  and 
strove  to  utter  that  which  was  in  our  hearts,  and  only 
could  say  huskily  a  word  or  two,  of  which  the  mean 
ing  was  conveyed  for  the  most  part  by  the  sorrow  and 
the  longing  that  were  in  our  tones.  Young's  natural 
instincts  were  wholly  opposed  to  any  display  of  the 
softer  emotions,  and  for  shame  of  the  weakness  that 
in  this  case  he  could  not  help  but  show,  his  face  and 
neck  flushed  red,  and  he  declared  that  he  had  the  tooth 
ache.  And  then,  as  a  vent  for  his  overwrought  feel 
ings — of  all  things  in  the  world — he  fell  to  cursing  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Old  Colony  Railroad :  on  the 
ground  that  but  for  this  functionary,  who  most  unjus 
tifiably  had  discharged  him,  he  never  would  have  come 
to  Mexico  at  all ! 

For  my  own  part,  I  was  well  convinced  that  Fray 
Antonio  meant  then  to  say  good-bye  to  us ;  and  for  a 
long  while,  as  I  lay  awake  that  night,  my  thoughts 
went  backward  over  the  time  that  we  had  been  com 
panions  together,  and  so  dwelt  upon  the  faithfulness 
of  his  friendship,  and  upon  his  gallant  bearing  in  all 
times  of  peril,  and  upon  the  pure  and  perfect  holiness 
which  characterized  his  every  act  and  word.  Into  the 
future  I  dared  not  let  my  thoughts  wander,  for  I 


THE    SURRENDER    OF    A   LIFE.  325 

could  foresee  no  outcome  to  the  purpose  which  he  had 
planned  so  resolutely  but  a  dreary  sorrow  that  would 
rest  heavily  upon  me  through  all  the  remainder  of  my 
days.  And  at  last,  worn  out  by  my  own  grief,  I  fell 
into  a  troubled  sleep. 

The  faint  gray  light  of  early  morning  shone  dimly 
in  the  room  as  Rayburn  awakened  me  by  shaking  my 
arm ;  and  the  first  words  which  he  spoke  to  me  were, 
"The  Padre  is  not  here !" 

As  I  roused  myself  fully,  and  sat  up  and  looked  into 
his  face,  I  saw  by  the  look  that  he  gave  me  how  fully 
he  shared  the  dread  that  was  in  my  heart.  Young  still 
was  sleeping,  and  we  waited  to  rouse  him  until  we 
should  make  sure  that  what  we  feared  must  be  the 
truth  really  was  true.  Together  we  went  out  quietly 
into  the  court-yard  and  so  to  the  main  entrance  of  the 
building,  where  a  guard  was  stationed.  But  this  man 
was  asleep ;  and  when  I  wakened  him,  and  questioned 
him  as  to  whether  the  monk  had  gone  forth,  he  could 
give  me  no  answer.  Therefore  we  went  on  to  the  gate 
of  the  Citadel — which  gate,  being  a  vastly  heavy  grat 
ing,  raised  and  lowered  by  chains,  was  not  usually 
closed  even  at  night — in  the  hope  that  there  we  might 
gain  some  certain  knowledge.  And  here  also  we  found 
all  of  the  half-dozen  men  on  guard  slumbering,  saving 
only  one  man,  who  seemed  to  have  been  aroused  by 
the  sound  of  our  footsteps,  and  who  raised  himself  on 
one  elbow  and  looked  at  us  with  a  sleepy  curiosity. 

Even  the  urgency  of  the  quest  that  we  were  upon 
did  not  suffice  to  distract  our  attention  from  the  peril 
that  we  all  were  in  because  of  the  slumbering  of  these 


326  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOtTBfi. 

sentries.  "If  this  is  a  specimen  of  the  way  all  the 
watches  are  kept,"  Rayburn  said,  angrily,  "  we  stand 
a  pretty  good  chance  of  being  murdered  in  our  beds. 
It  all  comes  of  trying  to  make  soldiers  out  of  savages. 
These  Tlahuicos  will  fight  well  enough,  I  never  doubt 
ed  that,  but  to  put  such  men  on  guard  is  simple 
idiocy.  They  have  been  slaves  all  their  lives,  and  they 
haven't  the  least  notion  in  the  world  of  personal  re 
sponsibility.  It's  a  lucky  thing  that  we  have  found 
out  their  methods,  for  I  shall  give  the  Colonel  a  talk 
ing  to  about  putting  on  guard  some  of  his  own  men 
who  can  be  trusted.  It's  clear  that  these  fellows  can 
not  tell  us  anything.  We'd  better  keep  on  down  to 
the  landing;  if  the  Padre  has  gone" — there  was  a  sud 
den  break  in  Rayburn's  voice  as  he  said  these  words 
— "it's  pretty  certain  that  he  has  gone  by  water,  and 
we  may  come  across  somebody  down  there  who  hap 
pened  to  be  awake  and  saw  him  start." 

There  were  slight  signs  of  wakefulness  beginning  to 
show  themselves  as  we  went  down  towards  the  water 
side  ;  a  few  doors  already  were  open ;  here  and  there 
thin  threads  of  smoke  curled  upward  through  the  still 
air ;  around  a  fountain  a  half-dozen  women  were  clus 
tered,  drawing  water  in  great  earthen  pots,  and  chatter 
ing  together  softly  in  half-drowsy  talk.  At  the  pier, 
however,  we  found  some  people  who  really  were  wide 
awake:  fishermen  just  returned  with  a  boat-load  of 
fish  that  they  had  caught  in  the  lake.  And  these,  when 
I  questioned  them,  in  a  moment  resolved  all  of  our 
troubled  doubts  into  a  sad  certainty.  Only  an  hour 
before,  as  they  lay  out  on  the  lake,  a  canoe  had  passed 


THE    SURRENDER    OP    A    LIFE.  327 

them  paddled  by  a  single  Indian,  and  in  the  canoe 
they  had  plainly  recognized  Fray  Antonio.  It  was  im 
possible  that  they  should  be  mistaken,  they  declared, 
for  the  habit  which  the  monk  wore  made  him  very 
plainly  recognizable ;  and  they  had  observed  him  with 
a  particular  care,  for  they  had  been  greatly  surprised 
by  perceiving  that  the  canoe  was  heading  directly  for 
"the  great  city" — by  which  name  all  save  the  priests 
were  accustomed  to  speak  of  Culhuacan. 

Neither  Rayburn  nor  I  spoke,  as  we  walked  back 
together  through  the  town  to  the  Citadel.  Our  hearts 
were  altogether  too  full  for  words.  Even  I,  who  had 
been  in  part  prepared  for  Fray  Antonio's  departure  by 
the  tenor  of  his  speech  with  us  the  night  before,  had 
not  anticipated  his  going  from  us  so  suddenly  to  what 
surely  must  be  his  death;  and  to  Rayburn  his  depart 
ure  came  with  the  startling  force  of  a  heavy  and  unex 
pected  blow.  Young  was  awake  when  we  returned, 
and  was  in  much  anxiety  concerning  us ;  for  our  cus 
tom  at  all  times  was  to  hold  closely  together,  and  he 
knew  that  something  out  of  the  common  must  have 
happened  to  make  us  break  through  this  very  necessa 
ry  rule ;  and  his  fears  were  further  aroused  when  he 
perceived  the  sad  gravity  of  our  faces,  and  that  Fray 
Antonio  was  not  in  our  company.  Yet,  though  thus 
prepared  to  learn  that  evil  of  some  sort  had  overtaken 
us,  he  was  not  at  all  prepared  to  learn  how  great  that 
evil  was.  When,  therefore,  we  told  him  of  what  we 
had  discovered,  which  gave  absolute  assurance  that 
Fray  Antonio  had  carried  out  his  purpose  of  surren 
dering  himself  into  the  Priest  Captain's  hands,  Young 


328  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

stared  at  us  for  a  moment  in  a  dazed  sort  of  way,  as 
though  by  no  means  grasping  the  meaning  which  our 
words  conveyed.  And  then  the  whole  meaning  of  them 
seemed  to  come  to  him  suddenly,  and  he  burst  forth 
into  such  a  raving  volley  of  curses  that  it  seemed  as 
though  he  were  fairly  maddened  by  his  ungoverned 
rage. 

I  envied  Young,  as  I  am  sure  Rayburn  did  also,  the 
relief  that  must  come  to  him  with  this  rough  but  frank 
and  natural  expression  of  his  bitter  grief.  For  our 
selves,  we  stood  sad  and  silent,  yet  with  our  hearts  al 
most  breaking  within  us,  as  we  thought  how  small  was 
the  chance  that  ever  in  this  world  should  we  see  the 
face  of  Fray  Antonio  again. 


XXIX. 

THE   ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT. 

NEITHER  the  Council,  in  its  irresolute  parleyings,  nor 
Fray  Antonio,  in  his  resolute  action,  had  at  all  consid- 
dered  certain  factors  which  they  themselves  had  inter 
jected  into  the  problem  that  they  then  were  dealing 
with  from  such  widely  different  stand -points  and  in 
such  widely  different  ways.  The  Council,  at  a  stroke, 
had  transformed  the  Tlahuicos  into  soldiers,  and  had 
given  the  promise  that  in  reward  for  their  faithfulness 
and  valor  these  slaves  thenceforward  should  be  freemen. 
Fray  Antonio  had  preached  to  all  those  assembled  at 
Huitzilan  a  creed  that  had  taken  strong  hold  upon 


THE    ASSAULT   IX    THE    NIGHT.  329 

many  hearts,  and  that  especially  had  won  the  hearts 
of  those  of  the  long-oppressed  servile  class — to  whom 
its  doctrine  of  equality  seemed  to  hold  out  an  absolute 
assurance  that  their  life  of  slavery  was  at  an  end. 

When,  therefore,  the  terms  which  the  Priest  Captain 
offered  were  spread  abroad  through  the  town,  and 
through  the  camp  close  beside  the  town  in  which  the 
army  lay — being  there  in  readiness  instantly  to  occu 
py  the  Citadel  should  the  enemy  appear — a  very  lively 
anger  was  aroused  because  such  terms  should  even  be 
listened  to.  For  what  the  Priest  Captain  demanded 
was  that  the  apostle  of  the  new  religion  should  be  re 
linquished  to  him  to  be  slain  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  Aztec 
gods,  and  that  once  more  the  Tlahuicos  should  be  thrust 
back  into  slavery  ;  while  what  he  conceded — in  that  it 
affected  only  the  higher  classes — made  the  lot  of  the 
Tlahuicos  but  the  more  unjustly  cruel  and  hard  to  bear. 

And  those  who  resented  the  delay  on  the  part  of  the 
Council  in  sending  back  the  Priest  Captain's  envoy 
with  a  sharp  denial,  presently  went  on  from  hot  words 
to  violent  deeds;  being  directly  led  from  mutinous 
talk  to  mutinous  action  by  the  knowledge  that  the 
Council  had  so  far  accepted  the  offered  terms  as  to  send 
Fray  Antonio  to  the  great  city  to  be  slain — for  not  one 
among  them  could  be  led  for  a  moment  to  believe, 
so  impossible  from  their  stand-point  did  such  an  act 
appear,  that  the  monk  truly  had  gone  thither  of  his 
own  free-will. 

Practically,  the  whole  army  was  involved  in  the 
movement  that  then  took  place  ;  for  even  its  officers, 
while  not  of  the  servile  class,  dreaded  the  punishment 


330  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

that  their  revolt  might  bring  upon  them,  and  so  pre 
ferred  to  take  the  chances  of  the  war  rather  than  to 
yield  themselves  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  Priest  Captain 
might  dispose.  Therefore  it  was,  on  the  day  that  Fray 
Antonio  departed  from  us,  that  all  the  soldiers  together 
marched  in  from  their  camp  and  massed  themselves 
compactly  about  the  Council  Chamber  within  the 
Citadel,  and  then  with  loud  cries  demanded  that  the 
envoy  should  be  sent  back  to  the  great  city  with  an 
absolute  refusal  of  the  offered  terms.  Thus  was  there 
created  a  rebellion  within  a  rebellion ;  and  one  that  the 
Council  was  powerless  to  put  down,  for  the  reason  that 
practically  the  whole  of  the  force  which  it  had  created 
to  serve  against  the  enemy  was  now  risen  against  its 
own  authority  with  a  most  masterful  strength. 

In  the  case  that  thus  was  presented  there  was  no 
opportunity  to  temporize.  The  fierce,  wild  creatures 
of  whom  soldiers  suddenly  had  been  made  stood  there 
before  the  Council  Chamber,  shouting  and  waving 
their  spears  angrily  and  clashing  together  their  arms. 
And  so  they  continued,  without  one  moment  of  quiet, 
until  their  will  was  obeyed.  Through  the  savage  and 
tumultuous  throng  the  envoy  was  led  forth — his  looks 
showing  plainly  his  very  natural  expectation  that  his 
life  would  be  let  out  of  him  amid  that  ferocious  com 
pany — and  so  down  to  the  water-side  ;  and  thence  was 
sent  back  again  to  Culhuacan  with  the  firm  assurance 
— which  message  of  defiance  the  soldiers  themselves 
dictated — that  the  terms  offered  by  the  Priest  Captain 
would  be  accepted  only  when  all  the  Tlahuicos  then 
risen  together  in  arms  against  him  had  been  slain  ! 


THE    ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT.  331 

"  Bully  for  th'  Tlahuicos  !"  cried  Young,  as  I  trans 
lated  to  him  these  ringing  words.  "  Just  tell  'em,  Pro 
fessor,  that  I've  volunteered  for  three  years  or  th'  war, 
an'  that  they  can  count  on  me  t'  keep  up  a  full  head  o' 
steam  as  long  as  there's  any  fightin'  t'  be  done.  Ac- 
cordin'  t'  my  notions,  now  that  th'  Padre's  over  there 
in  th'  city — t'  say  nothin'  o'  what  we  owe  'em  on  Pablo's 
account  —  th7  row  can't  begin  one  minute  too  soon. 
These  Tlahuicos  are  th'  boys  for  me !  Didn't  I  tell 
you  that  nobody  could  stop  'em  when  they  once  got 
fairly  started?  They're  a  tough  lot;  but  they're  just 
everlastin'  rustlers — an'  their  style  suits  me  right  now 
all  th'  way  down  t'  th'  ground  floor !" 

The  sharp  excitement  attendant  upon  this  vigorous 
action  gave  place,  as  the  day  wore  on,  to  a  dull  heavy 
pain  as  our  thoughts  dwelt  upon  the  fate  that  Fray 
Antonio  had  gone  forth  to  meet,  and  upon  our  present 
powerlessness  to  defend  him  in  any  way  against  it.  Al 
though  the  envoy  had  been  sent  back,  and  war  was 
now  resolutely  determined  upon,  the  situation  remained 
unchanged  in  so  far  as  concerned  the  necessity  of  our 
waiting  for  the  Priest  Captain  to  take  the  initiative. 
To  attack  that  great  walled  city  was  so  hopeless  a  task 
that  even  the  Tlahuicos — flushed  though  they  were  by 
their  victory  over  the  Council  —  did  not  venture  to 
propose  it ;  for  they  knew,  as  we  all  did,  that  our  only 
chance  of  carrying  the  enemy's  stronghold  lay  in  first 
defeating  its  garrison  in  a  battle  in  the  open  field. 
Yet  this  dull  inaction  of  waiting  was  a  source  of  grave 
danger  to  us,  in  that  it  tended  to  wear  out  the  spirits 
of  our  men  and  to  make  them  still  more  careless  of  their 


332  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

guard.  What  Rayburn  and  I  had  seen  that  morning 
had  shown  how  little  trust  could  be  placed  in  them,  in 
so  far  as  the  soldierly  attribute  of  watchfulness  was 
concerned  ;  and  Tizoc,  with  whom  we  conferred  in  re 
gard  to  this  important  matter,  had  little  to  say  that  we 
found  comforting.  Being  himself  a  thorough  soldier, 
he  perceived  the  danger  to  which  the  unsoldierly  lack 
of  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  Tlahuicos  exposed  our 
camp;  but  the  situation  was  such  that  he  was  power 
less  to  take  effective  measures  for  our  protection.  The 
few  regular  troops  in  our  little  army  were  not  enough 
to  do  sentry  duty  everywhere,  and  the  best  that  could 
be  done  would  be  to  dispose  them  at  the  points  most 
open  to  attack — "And  then  trust  to  luck,"  Rayburn 
put  in,  rather  bitterly,  "  that  the  enemy  will  be  polite 
enough  to  try  to  surprise  only  the  part  of  the  camp 
where  the  sentries  are  awake !" 

Partly  that  we  might  see  for  ourselves  how  our 
pickets  were  disposed,  but  more  that  by  action  of  any 
sort  we  might  divert  our  thoughts  from  the  sorrow 
that  was  gnawing  at  our  hearts,  we  walked  out  togeth 
er  in  the  late  afternoon  to  the  rocky  heights  of  the 
promontory  that  on  the  western  side  of  the  town  ex 
tended  far  into  the  lake.  From  a  military  stand-point 
this  position  was  of  great  importance  to  us,  inasmuch 
as  bowmen  or  slingmen  gaining  access  to  it  could  com 
mand  a  considerable  part  of  the  town,  and  even  could 
annoy  very  seriously  the  garrison  of  the  Citadel ;  and 
it  also  was  of  value  to  us  as  a  place  of  lookout  whence 
an  attacking  party  coming  by  way  of  the  lake  from  the 
city  could  be  perceived  while  yet  it  was  a  long  way  off. 


THE    ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT.  333 

We  were  surprised,  therefore,  when  we  had  come 
well  out  upon  the  promontory,  that  no  sentinel  chal 
lenged  us  ;  but  our  surprise  vanished  a  moment  or  two 
later  as  we  perceived  one  of  our  men  curled  up  com 
fortably  against  a  sunny  rock  and  apparently  sound 
asleep.  However,  as  we  got  close  to  the  man  it  was 
clear  to  us  that  his  sleep  was  one  that  he  never  would 
waken  from,  for  a  pool  of  blood  stained  the  rock  be 
side  him,  and  an  arrow  was  shot  fairly  through  his 
heart.  We  made  but  a  short  stop  beside  this  fellow — 
who  plainly  had  been  shot  in  his  sleep,  and  so  deserved 
the  fate  that  had  overtaken  him — and  then  went  for 
ward  anxiously  that  we  might  see  how  the  other  senti 
nels  stationed  hereabouts  had  fared.  The  result  of  our 
quest  was  as  bad  as  it  could  be ;  for  in  one  place  or 
another  among  the  rocks  we  found  all  five  of  the  men 
who  had  been  posted  upon  the  promontory,  and  all  of 
them  were  dead.  Three  more  of  them  certainly  had 
been  shot  while  asleep  or  wholly  off  their  guard,  as 
was  shown  by  the  easy  attitudes  in  which  we  found 
them  sitting  or  lying  among  the  rocks.  The  fifth  had 
not  been  instantly  killed ;  as  we  inferred  from  finding  a 
broken  arrow  sticking  in  his  left  arm,  and  some  signs 
of  a  struggle  about  where  he  lay,  and  a  great  split  in 
his  skull,  as  from  a  sword  stroke,  that  finally  had  let 
the  life  out  of  him.  It  struck  us  as  strange  that  this 
man  had  not  aroused  the  camp  with  his  shouts ;  but 
his  post  was  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  promontory,  so 
that  he  must  have  called  very  loudly  in  order  to  be 
heard ;  and  it  was  possible  that  in  the  suddenness  of 
his  danger  he  never  thought  to  call  at  all,  However, 


334  THE  AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

the  important  matter,  so  far  as  we  were  concerned,  was 
that  these  five  sentinels  had  been  slain  close  beside  the 
town  and  in  broad  daylight,  and  that  but  for  the  chance 
of  our  coming  out  upon  the  promontory  the  most  impor 
tant  of  our  outposts  would  have  remained  unguarded 
until  the  night  relief  should  have  come  on.  It  was 
Rayburn's  theory  that  the  plan  of  the  enemy  was  to 
place  has  own  men  on  the  vacant  posts — trusting  to 
the  reasonable  certainty  that  in  the  dusk  of  evening 
one  naked  Indian  would  look  much  like  another — and 
so  despatch  the  relief,  one  by  one,  as  the  guard  was 
changed. 

Of  those  of  the  enemy  who  had  accomplished  this 
piece  of  work  so  skilfully  we  could  see  no  sign — unless 
it  were  a  boat  that  we  dimly  saw  a  long  way  off  on  the 
lake,  and  that  presently  wholly  disappeared  in  a  bank 
of  haze  ;  and  despite  the  hot  sunshine  basking  upon  us 
a  chill  went  through  me  at  thought  of  the  stealthy  dar 
ing  and  truly  devilish  cunning  of  the  men  who  thus 
could  do  their  evil  work  in  the  full  light  of  day,  and 
close  to  the  encampment  of  an  army,  and  yet  could  get 
safely  away  without  leaving  a  trace  of  their  presence 
save  the  dead  bodies  of  their  foes. 

Having  made  sure  by  carefully  searching  among  the 
rocks  throughout  the  length  of  the  promontory  that 
none  of  the  enemy  was  hidden  there,  we  hastened  back 
to  the  town  to  tell  what  we  had  come  upon,  and  to  pro 
vide  for  mounting  fresh  sentinels  in  the  place  of  those 
who  had  been  relieved  by  death.  We  had  expected 
that  the  news  which  we  brought  would  stir  up  a  great 
commotion  ;  and  we  were  wot  a  little  troubled,  there- 


I 


THE    ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT.  335 

fore,  knowing  how  serious  the  matter  was  in  its  exhi 
bition  of  the  carelessness  of  our  guards,  by  finding  that 
only  Tizoc  and  a  few  other  tried  soldiers  were  more 
than  lightly  discomposed  by  what  we  had  to  tell.  The 
general  feeling  seemed  to  be — inasmuch  as  our  lucky 
discovery  had  dispelled  the  danger — that  there  was  no 
need  to  worry  about  a  calamity  which  had  not  occurred; 
and  what  after  all  was  the  most  essential  consideration 
— the  constant  danger  that  threatened  us  by  reason  of 
the  criminal  laxity  of  the  watch  maintained  by  our 
pickets  —  practically  was  lost  sight  of.  Apparently 
neither  the  Council  nor  the  higher  officers  of  the  army 
had  the  power  to  remedy  this  dangerous  condition  of 
affairs.  At  no  time  had  any  very  strong  authority 
been  exercised  over  the  Tlahuicos — for  all  the  orders 
which  until  now  had  been  given  to  them  had  been 
directed  only  towards  urging  them  along  a  way  that 
they  were  glad  enough  to  follow  of  their  own  accord — 
and,  since  their  assertion  of  their  will  that  morning, 
what  little  control  had  restrained  their  waywardness 
seemed  to  have  been  wholly  lost. 

However,  as  there  was  a  chance  in  it  of  fighting,  and 
as  fighting  was  what  they  longed  for  earnestly,  our  un 
ruly  soldiers  were  willing  enough  that  a  strong  detach 
ment  should  be  placed  in  ambush  on  the  promontory, 
to  the  end  that  the  force  which  the  enemy  probably 
would  land  there  that  night  might  be  summarily  dealt 
with.  And  the  better  to  carry  out  our  plan  of  a  coun 
ter-surprise  the  dead  sentinels  were  left  where  we  found 
them.  Tizoc  was  given  the  command  of  the  ambushed 
force,  and  he  willingly  granted  our  request  that  we 


336  THE    AZTEC    TKEA.SURE-HOUSE. 

might  accompany  him;  which  request  was  prompted 
by  the  desire  that  we  fully  shared  with  the  Tlahuicos 
to  get  at  close  quarters  with  the  enemy,  and  also  by 
the  conviction  that  in  Tizoc's  company — though  in  his 
company  we  were  like  to  have  hot  fighting  and  plenty 
of  it — we  would  have  better  chances  of  safety  than 
anywhere  else  in  all  our  camp. 

For  this  expedition  we  put  on  for  the  first  time  our 
armor  of  quilted  cotton  cloth ;  and  the  look  of  these 
garments  certainly  did  justify  Young's  comments  upon 
them.  "It's  a  pity  we  can't  get  photographed  now," 
he  said,  "so's  t'  send  our  likenesses  in  this  rig  home  t'  our 
folks.  You'd  just  jolt  the  Cap  Cod  folks,  Rayburn,  with 
that  pair  o'  telegraph  poles  you  call  your  legs  stickin'  out 
from  under  th'  tails  o'  that  thing  that  looks  like  a  cross 
between  a  badly  made  frock-coat  and  an  undersized 
night-shirt.  And  I  guess  your  college  boys  'd  be  jolted, 
too,  Professor,  if  they  could  get  a  squint  at  you.  And 
I  s'pose  that  if  some  o'  th'  hands  on  th'  Old  Colony 
happened  t'  ketch  up  with  me  dressed  this  way  they'd 
think  I'd  gone  crazy.  But  I  haven't  got  anything  t' 
say  against  these  little  night-shirts  except  about  their 
looks.  When  you  get  right  down  t'  th'  hard-pan  with 
'em,  they're  a  first-rate  thing." 

For  three  American  citizens,  belonging  to  the  nine 
teenth  century,  we  certainly  presented  a  strange  ap 
pearance,  and  appeared  also  in  very  strange  company, 
as  we  marched  out  from  the  town  late  that  afternoon 
with  Tizoc  and  his  men.  Each  of  us  carried  half  a 
dozen  darts,  and  strapped  around  our  waists,  outside 
our  cotton-cloth  armor,  we  each  wore  a  maccahuitl — • 


THE    ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT.  337 

the  heavy  sword  with  a  jagged  double  edge  that  we 
knew  from  experience  was  an  excellent  weapon  when 
wielded  by  a  strong  hand.  Indeed,  Young  and  I  car 
ried  the  darts  rather  to  satisfy  Tizoc  than  because  we 
expected  to  make  any  very  effective  use  of  them,  and 
all  of  our  reliance  both  for  assault  and  defence  was 
upon  what  we  could  do  with  our  swords  at  close  quar 
ters.  Rayburn,  however,  had  been  practising  dart- 
throwing  very  diligently,  and  as  he  naturally  was  an 
extraordinarily  dextrous  man  he  had  made  rapid  prog 
ress  in  this  savage  art.  The  soldiers  in  our  company, 
naked  creatures,  lithe  and  sinewy,  were  armed  for  the 
most  part  with  spears  and  slings  ;  and  the  officers  wore 
each  a  sword  and  carried  each  a  handful  of  darts. 
As  we  all  stepped  out  briskly  together  I  could  not  but 
think  how  amazed  would  be  the  President  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Michigan,  and  my  fellow-members  of  the 
Faculty  of  that  institution  of  learning,  should  they 
happen  to  encounter  me  in  that  barbarous  company, 
and  arrayed  in  that  most  barbarous  garb  ! 

It  was  a  little  before  sunset  when  we  reached  the 
place  that  Tizoc  had  selected  for  our  ambush  upon  the 
promontory;  and  an  hour  later,  just  as  the  shadows  of 
evening  were  beginning  to  fall,  one  of  our  lookout  men 
reported  that  a  large  boat — of  which  the  oars  must  be 
muffled,  for  no  sound  came  from  it — was  pulling  around 
a  point  just  beyond  where  we  lay.  There  was  a  little 
stir  among  our  men  when  this  news  was  received,  and 
a  shifting  and  arranging  of  weapons,  so  that  all  might 
be  in  readiness  when  the  moment  for  opening  the  am 
bush  came ;  but  we  had  a  picked  f orce  with  us,  each 
22 


338  THE    AZTEC   TEEASUEE-HOUSE. 

man  of  which  fully  understood  how  necessary  was  si 
lence  to  the  success  of  our  plans,  and  the  quick  thrill 
of  movement  was  so  guarded  that  it  scarcely  ruffled 
the  deep  stillness  of  the  night.  • 

But  the  moments  lengthened  out  into  minutes,  and 
the  minutes  slowly  slipped  by  until  a  full  hour  had 
passed,  and  the  thick  darkness  of  tropical  night  was 
upon  us,  and  still  there  was  no  sign  of  a  foe.  Tizoc 
grew  uneasy,  for  it  was  evident  that  we  were  in  error 
in  our  conception  of  the  enemy's  plan.  Had  he  intend- 
to  mount  his  own  men  as  sentinels  in  place  of  our  men 
whom  he  had  slain,  and  then  get  safe  possession  of  the 
promontory  by  killing  the  relief  as  it  came  on,  we 
should  have  been  long  since  engaged  with  him ;  but 
here  the  night  was  wearing  on,  and,  excepting  only  the 
boat  that  our  scouts  had  seen,  there  had  been  nothing 
to  show  that  the  attack  which  we  had  expected  so  con 
fidently  was  anything  more  than  a  creation  of  our  own 
fears.  Yet  our  only  course  was  to  remain  where  we 
were  until  morning ;  for  some  accident  might  have 
delayed  the  attack,  and  the  necessity  of  holding  the 
promontory  was  so  urgent  that  we  could  not  take  the 
risk  of  withdrawing  our  force. 

It  was  weary  work  sitting  there  in  the  darkness, 
after  all  the  weariness  of  so  exciting  a  day,  and  as  the 
hours  dragged  on  I  found  myself  now  and  then  sinking 
into  a  doze,  for  which  I  reproached  myself ;  yet  also 
excused  myself  by  the  reflection  that  I  did  not  at  all 
profess  to  have  either  the  training  or  the  instincts  of  a 
soldier,  but  had  been  brought  up,  as  a  man  of  peace 
and  as  a  scholar,  in  accordance  with  the  sound  principle 


THE    ASSAULT   IN   THE    NIGHT.  339 

that  night  rationally  is  the  time  set  apart  for  sleep. 
It  was  from  a  most  agreeable  nap  —  in  which  I  was 
dreaming  pleasantly  of  my  old  life  in  Ann  Arbor — that 
I  was  roused  suddenly  by  Rayburn's  quick  grip  upon 
my  shoulder,  and  by  his  sharp  whisper, "  What's  that  ?" 

In  an  instant  I  was  thoroughly  awake,  and  as  I  bent 
forward  and  listened  intently  I  heard  very  distinctly  a 
faint  cry  of  alarm,  that  seemed  to  come  from  a  long 
way  off.  Tizoc,  I  perceived — for  he  had  risen  to  his 
feet — also  was  most  eagerly  listening  ;  and  I  heard  a 
slight  sound  of  movement  and  of  arms  clinking  as  our 
men  roused  themselves,  showing  that  they  also  had 
heard  that  warning  cry. 

But  in  a  moment  there  was  no  need  to  strain  our 
ears  to  catch  the  sounds  which  came  to  us.  The  cry 
that  a  single  throat  had  uttered  was  taken  up  by  a 
thousand ;  and  so  grew  into  a  dull,  distant  roar,  that 
pierced  the  black  and  sullen  stillness  of  the  night.  And 
with  this  came  also  the  higher  notes  of  savage  yells,  and 
then  we  heard  the  clash  of  arms — which  evidence  that 
fighting  was  going  on,  no  less  than  the  direction  whence, 
as  we  now  perceived  clearly,  the  sounds  came,  assured 
us  that  while  we  had  maintained  our  watchful  guard 
on  the  promontory  the  enemy  had  surprised  our  camp. 

Rayburn  sprang  up  with  a  growl  like  that  of  a  sav 
age  beast.  "  By  G d  !"  he  cried, "  they  meant  us  to 

do  just  what  we've  done,  and  we've  walked  into  their 
trap  like  so  many  d n  fools  I" 


340  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 


XXX. 

THE    FALL    OF   THE    CITADEL. 

Tizoc,  I  was  glad  to  see,  had  his  men  well  under  his 
command,  as  was  shown  by  the  orderly  manner  in  which 
they  waited,  despite  their  eager  impatience  to  be  off, 
until  he  gave  the  command  to  march.  And  hard  march 
ing  we  found  it,  as  wre  floundered  about  that  rough, 
rocky  place,  tripping  and  stumbling,  and  now  and  then 
hearing  a  crash  in  the  darkness  as  one  of  our  men  went 
down.  But,  somehow  or  other,  we  certainly  managed 
to  get  over  the  ground  very  rapidly;  and  all  the  while 
the  sounds  of  the  fight  that  was  raging  hotly  struck 
with  a  constantly  increasing  clearness  upon  our  ears. 

The  whole  width  of  the  town  lay  between  our  camp 
and  the  foot  of  the  rugged  path  that  led  down  from 
the  promontory;  but  when  we  were  fairly  in  the  streets, 
and  no  longer  had  rough  rocks  to  stumble  over  in  the 
darkness,  we  went  forward  at  a  very  slashing  pace. 
And  we  were  further  helped  now  by  the  fact  that  day 
was  breaking,  so  that  we  could  see  clearly  where  we 
were  going ;  and  we  had  also  within  us  that  feeling  of 
cheer  and  encouragement  that  ever  is  given  to  man  by 
the  return  of  the  sun.  In  but  a  few  minutes  more,  in 
that  tropical  region,  a  flood  of  daylight  would  be  about 
us;  and  Tizoc's  hope  was  that  when  the  horror  of  dark 
ness,  ever  appalling  to  barbarians,  should  be  lifted,  and 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  CITADEL.  341 

when  our  coming  should  afford  a  firm  centre  to  rally 
around,  our  army  might  regain  the  courage  and  stead 
iness  which  it  had  lost  in  the  terror  and  bewilderment 
of  a  night  surprise. 

But  he  quickly  found  that  this  hope  was  doomed  to 
disappointment.  Only  a  little  beyond  the  gate  of  the 
Citadel  we  came  upon  a  flying  body  of  Tlahuicos — 
though  no  pursuers  were  in  sight  beyond  them — and 
these  were  so  completely  demoralized  that  they  took 
our  company  for  a  detachment  of  the  enemy,  and  with 
wild  cries  fled  away  from  us  down  a  side  street  and 
so  disappeared.  "  What  do  you  think  of  your  friends 
now?"  Rayburn  asked  Young,  grimly.  But  Young's 
only  answer  was  to  curse  the  vanished  Tlahuicos  for 
cowards. 

A  moment  later  the  whole  street  in  front  of  us  was 
filled  with  a  howling  mob  of  our  men,  and  these  came 
surging  towards  us  with  the  evident  intention  of  seek 
ing  safety  in  the  Citadel.  Tizoc  saw  at  a  glance  the 
hopelessness  of  trying  to  rally  a  rout  like  this  until  the 
terrified  creatures,  fleeing  like  sheep  from  a  pack  of 
wolves,  had  been  given  rest  for  a  while  in  some  safe 
place  where  their  courage  might  return  to  them.  Be 
ing  once  within  the  Citadel  they  would  be  for  a  time 
wholly  out  of  danger;  for  even  should  the  enemy  try 
to  set  scaling-ladders  in  place,  and  so  break  in  upon  us 
there,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  for  a  few  determined 
men  to  hold  the  walls  until  some  sort  of  order  had  been 
restored  among  our  broken  forces.  Tizoc  therefore 
promptly  wheeled  our  little  force  aside  into  an  open 
space,  and  so  made  a  way  for  the  struggling  crowd 


342  THE    AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

to  sweep  past  us.  We  noted,  as  the  stream  of  terror- 
stricken  men  flowed  by,  that  their  officers  were  not 
with  them;  from  which  Tizoc  drew  the  hopeful  augury 
that  the  officers,  being  all  trained  soldiers,  had  drawn 
together  into  a  rear-guard  that  sought  to  cover  this 
wild  retreat.  And  presently  we  found  that  Tizoc  was 
right  in  his  inference,  for  soon  the  crowd  began  very 
perceptibly  to  grow  thinner,  and  the  sound  of  loud 
cries  and  the  rattle  and  clashing  of  arms  rang  out 
above  the  tumult,  and  then  there  came  around  a  turn 
in  the  street,  a  little  beyond  where  we  had  halted,  a 
compact  body  of  men  who  were  falling  back  slowly, 
and  who  were  laying  about  them  most  valiantly  with 
their  swords.  Our  party  gave  a  yell,  by  way  of  put 
ting  fresh  heart  into  these  gallant  fellows,  and  Tizoc 
quickly  disposed  our  company  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  retreating  force  fell  back  through  our  midst;  and 
then  we  promptly  closed  in,  and  so  took  the  fighting 
to  ourselves. 

I  cannot  tell  very  clearly  how  our  retreat  to  the  Cit 
adel  was  managed,  nor  even  of  my  own  part  in  it ;  for 
fighting  is  but  rough,  wild  work,  which  defies  all  at 
tempts  at  scientific  accuracy  in  describing  it — and  for 
the  reason,  I  fancy,  that  it  engenders  a  wholly  unsci 
entific  frame  of  mind.  Reduced  to  its  lowest  terms, 
fighting  is  mere  barbarity;  a  most  illogical  method  of 
settling  some  disputed  question  by  brute  force  instead 
of  by  the  refined  reasoning  processes  of  the  intelligent 
human  mind ;  and  by  the  anger  that  it  inevitably  be 
gets,  the  habit  of  accurate  observation,  out  of  which 
alone  can  come  accurate  description,  is  hopelessly  con- 


THE   FALL   OF   THE    CITADEL.  343 

fused.  Therefore  I  can  say  only  that  foot  by  foot  we 
yielded  the  ground  to  the  enemy  that  pressed  upon 
us;  that  wild  shouts  rang  out  —  in  which  I  myself 
joined,  though  why  I  should  have  shouted  I  am  sure  I 
do  not  know — together  with  the  sharp  rattle  of  clash 
ing  swords;  and  that  through  the  roar  of  this  outburst 
of  fierce  sounds  there  ran  an  undertone  of  groans  and 
sobs  from  the  poor  wretches  who  had  fallen  wounded 
to  the  ground.  The  one  thing  that  I  remember  clearly 
is  a  set-to  with  swords  that  I  had  with  a  big  fellow, 
just  as  we  had  come  close  to  the  Citadel,  that  ended  in 
a  way  (that  would  have  surprised  him  mightily  had  he 
lived  long  enough  to  comprehend  it)  by  my  finishing 
him  by  means  of  a  stop-thrust  followed  by  a  beautiful 
draw-cut  that  was  a  famous  stroke  with  my  old  sabre- 
master  at  Leipsic.  And  I  well  remember  thinking,  at 
the  moment  that  I  made  this  stroke — and  so  saved  my 
life  by  it,  for  the  fellow  was  pressing  me  very  closely — 
how  happy  it  would  have  made  the  old  Kittmeister 
could  he  have  seen  me  deliver  it. 

As  we  made  a  rush  for  the  gate  of  the  Citadel,  that 
we  might  get  inside  this  place  of  safety  and  drop  the 
grating  before  the  enemy  could  follow  us,  we  were  sur 
prised  by  finding  many  of  our  own  men  lying  dead 
about  the  entrance ;  and  what  was  far  worse  for  us, 
we  found  that  unskilled  hands  had  been  at  work  with 
the  machinery  whereby  the  gate  was  lowered  and  by 
their  bungling  had  managed  to  start  it  downward  in 
such  a  way  that  it  had  jammed  in  the  grooves.  What 
actually  had  happened  there,  as  we  knew  afterwards, 
was  that  the  first  of  the  cowardly  wretches  who  had 


344  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

entered  the  Citadel  had  tried  to  drop  the  gate  in  the 
faces  of  their  companions  and  so  secure  their  own  safe 
ty;  whence  a  fight  among  themselves  had  sprung  up,  in 
course  of  which  many  of  them  very  deservedly  were 
slain,  and,  most  unhappily  for  us,  their  frantic  efforts 
to  lower  the  gate  had  resulted  in  thus  disabling  it. 

We  had  a  moment  of  breathing  space  before  the 
enemy  came  up  with  us,  and  in  this  time  Ray  burn  and 
Young  and  I  had  a  grip  of  each  other's  hands,  in  which, 
without  any  words  over  it,  we  said  good-bye  to  each 
other;  for  we  neither  of  us  for  one  moment  doubted 
that  our  last  hour  had  come.  Tizoc  stood  a  little  dis 
tance  from  us,  as  steady  and  as  gallant  in  his  bearing 
as  ever  I  saw  a  man;  but  that  he  also  counted  surely 
upon  dying  there  was  shown  by  the  glance  of  grave 
friendliness  that  he  gave  us,  and  by  his  making  the 
gesture  that  among  his  people  is  significant  of  fare 
well.  Then  we  ranged  ourselves  across  the  gate- way, 
holding  our  swords  in  hand  firmly,  and  Rayburn,  who 
had  caught  up  a  javelin,  stood  with  it  poised  above  his 
shoulder  in  readiness  to  discharge  it  as  the  enemy  came 
on.  The  sight  of  his  splendid  figure  towering  defiantly 
in  that  heroic  attitude  set  my  mind  to  running  upon  the 
Homeric  legend  of  the  glorious  battling  of  the  Greeks 
before  the  gates  of  Troy,  and  of  Hector  uplifting  the 
rock;  and  I  was  very  angry  with  Young,  whose  dis 
position  to  seize  upon  the  whimsical  side  of  everything 
was  the  most  irrepressible  that  ever  I  came  across, 
when  he  exclaimed:  "I'll  bet  you  five  dollars,  Ray- 
burn,  that  when  you  throw  that  clothes-prop  you  don't 
hit  th'  man  you  fire  at  !" 


THE   PALL   OP  THE    CITADEL.  345 

But  Rayburn  did  hit  his  man,  straight  in  the  heart 
too,  a  moment  later,  as  the  enemy  with  a  wild  yell 
charged  us ;  and  then,  with  his  back  set  well  against 
the  wall,  he  fell  to  work  most  gallantly  with  his  sword. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  it  we  knew  that  our 
fighting  was  utterly  hopeless ;  for  all  of  our  company 
together  did  not  number  fifty  men,  and  we  were  con 
fronting  there  a  whole  army.  Up  the  street,  as  far  as 
we  could  see,  the  troops  of  the  enemy  were  solidly 
massed;  and  for  every  man  whom  we  struck  down 
twenty  were  ready  to  spring  forward,  fresh  and  vigor 
ous,  to  exhaust  still  further  the  strength  that  rapidly 
was  leaving  us.  That  we  fought  on  was  due  not  to 
our  valor  but  to  our  desperation ;  and  also — at  least 
such  was  my  own  feeling — to  a  swelling  rage  that 
made  us  long  to  kill  as  many  as  possible  of  these  sav 
ages  before  we  ourselves  died  beneath  their  blows. 
Death,  we  knew,  was  the  best  thing  that  could  happen 
to  us ;  for  it  would  save  us  from  the  worse  fate,  that 
surely  would  come  to  us  should  we  be  captured,  of 
being  turned  over  to  the  priests,  that  they  might  tor 
ture  us  before  their  heathen  altars,  and  in  the  end  tear 
our  still  quivering  hearts  out.  And  that  the  wish  of 
our  enemies  —  according  to  the  Aztec  custom  —  was 
rather  to  capture  us  than  to  kill  us  was  shown  by  the 
way  in  which  they  fought;  for  all  their  effort  was  to 
disable  us,  and  so  to  take  us  alive;  nor  did  they  seem  to 
have  any  great  care,  if  only  this  purpose  could  be  ac 
complished,  how  many  of  themselves  were  slain. 

Sometimes  in  my  dreams  the  wild  commotion  of  that 
most  desperate  combat  comes  back  to  me.  I  see  again 


346  THE    AZTEC   TREASUEE-HOUSE. 

before  me  the  crowd  of  half-naked  men,  curving  in  a 
semicircle  measured  by  the  length  of  my  sword,  their 
faces  distorted  by  the  passionate  anger  that  stirred 
their  souls  ;  and  I  see  one  fierce  face  after  another  lose 
out  of  it  the  look  of  life,  yet  not  the  look  of  hate,  as 
my  sword  crunches  into  the  vitals  of  the  body  to  which 
it  belongs ;  and  I  hear  the  wild  din  around  me,  and 
the  yells  of  rage  and  of  pain,  and  my  feet  tread  in 
slippery  pools  of  blood,  and  my  body  aches  with  wea 
riness,  and  sharp  thrills  of  agony  dart  through  the 
strained  muscles  of  my  right  arm — yet  still  I  fight  on, 
and  on.  And,  truly,  all  this  seems  more  real  to  me 
now  in  my  sleep  than  it  did  to  me  then  in  its  reality ; 
for  a  dull  weight  of  most  desolate  hoplessness  settled 
down  upon  me  as  I  fought  out  to  the  end  that  most 
hopeless  battle- — so  that  my  spirit  shared  in  the  numb 
ness  of  my  body,  and  I  cut  and  parried  and  gave  men 
their  death-blows  with  the  stolid  energy  of  a  mere 
death-dealing  machine. 

It  had  been  from  the  first  no  more  than  a  question  of 
minutes  how  long  this  unequal  fight  would  last ;  and 
when  I  heard  a  great  yell  from  the  enemy,  and  per 
ceived  a  flood  of  soldiers  swirling  inward  through  the 
gate-way  just  beyond  the  fellows  whom  I  was  dealing 
with,  I  knew  that  Tizoc's  men  had  been  beaten  down 
or  slain,  and  that  the  end  was  very  near  at  hand.  As 
I  glanced  across  the  shoulders  of  the  man  whom  I  just 
then  put  forever  on  the  list  of  the  non-combatants,  I 
saw  what  seemed  to  be  an  eddy  in  the  midst  of  the 
crowd  that  was  rushing  into  the  Citadel ;  and  in  the 
thick  of  the  tightly  knotted  group  that  thus  choked 


THE    FALL    OF    THE    CITADEL.  347 

the  narrow  way  I  saw  Tizoc  still  laying  about  him 
with  his  sword.  He  was  a  very  ghastly  object,  for  a 
cut  on  his  head  had  loosened  a  piece  of  his  scalp,  that 
hung  down  over  his  forehead  and  waved  and  trembled 
there  like  a  draggled  plume ;  his  face  was  bathed  in 
blood  from  this  horrid  wound,  and  his  armor  of  cotton 
cloth  was  soaked  with  the  blood  that  had  run  down 
upon  it  from  the  cut  in  his  head,  and  also  from  a  wound 
in  his  neck.  In  the  moment  that  I  had  free  sight  of 
him  he  made  as  fine  a  sword -stroke  as  ever  I  saw, 
wherewith  he  fairly  severed  from  its  body  the  head  of 
one  of  his  assailants ;  and  at  the  very  same  instant, 
while  that  head  still  was  spinning  in  the  air,  a  man 
directly  behind  him  forced  back  the  pressing  crowd  by 
main  strength  and  so  gained  a  free  space  in  which  to 
swing  his  sword.  I  shouted  to  Tizoc  to  warn  him  of 
the  danger,  and  he  half  turned  to  ward  against  it;  but 
before  he  could  turn  wholly  around  the  blow  had  fallen, 
splitting  his  whole  head  open  from  the  crown  to  the 
very  chin.  And  in  the  midst  of  the  fierce  yell  of  tri 
umph  that  went  up  as  this  cowardly  stroke  was  deliv 
ered  there  passed  from  earth  the  soul  of  as  brave  and  as 
true  a  man  as  earth  has  ever  known. 

A  dizziness  came  over  me  as  I  saw  Tizoc  fall,  and 
saw  in  the  same  moment  the  wild  rush  forward  of  the 
enemy  over  his  dead  body  into  the  Citadel ;  and  so  I 
suppose  that  what  with  this  dizziness  and  my  great 
weariness  I  must  have  dropped  my  guard.  I  faintly 
remember  hearing  a  shout  of  warning  from  Young,  who 
was  close  beside  me,  which  shout  mingled  with  the 
shrieks  of  those  inside  the  Citadel  whom  the  enemv 


348  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

everywhere  were  cutting  down,  and  the  great  roar  of 
victory  that  went  up  from  all  the  army,  both  within  and 
without  the  Citadel,  rising  tempestuously  in  mighty 
waves  of  sound :  and  then  a  crash  like  that  of  a  thun 
der-bolt  burst  directly  upon  my  head,  and  a  sicken 
ing  pain  shot  through  me,  and  I  seemed  to  be  falling 
through  untold  depths  into  vast  gloomy  chasms  (so 
that  I  thought  I  was  dropping  once  more  into  the 
hollow  darkness  of  the  canon),  and  there  was  a  very 
dreadful  surging  and  roaring  and  ringing  in  my  ears ; 
and  then  all  this  horror  of  evil  sounds  grew  fainter, 
and  I  felt  myself  slipping  quickly  into  the  awful  still 
ness  and  blackness  that  I  surely  thought  must  be  the 
entrance-way  to  death.  And  with  this  thought  a  numb 
sort  of  gladness  came  over  me,  for  in  death  there  was 
promise  of  restf  ulness  and  peace. 


XXXI. 

DEFEAT. 

AFTER  all,  the  life  that  I  thought  was  lost,  and  had 
but  little  sorrow  for  the  losing  of  it,  slowly  came  back 
to  me  again.  For  a  good  while  before  I  recovered 
consciousness  fully,  I  understood  a  little  of  what  was 
going  on  around  me  by  sounds  which,  no  doubt,  were 
loud  and  ringing,  yet  which  seemed  to  me  to  come 
faintly  from  a  long  way  off.  They  plainly  were  the 
sounds  of  fighting — of  weapons  rattling  together,  of 
shouts  and  yells  and  death-cries — but  I  did  not  associ- 


DEFEAT.  349 

ate  them  with  our  present  battling,  but  thought  that 
we  still  were  in  the  canon,  and  were  still  fighting  those 
wild  Indians  by  whom  poor  Dennis  was  slain.  And  I 
knew  that  I  had  been  hurt  badly ;  for  in  my  head  was 
a  throbbing  pain  so  keen  that  it  seemed  like  to  split 
my  skull  open,  and  my  stomach  was  stirred  by  most 
distressing  qualms,  and  my  weakness  was  such  that 
I  could  not  ease  the  sore  muscles  of  my  body  by  mov 
ing  by  so  much  as  a  hair's-breadth  from  the  cramped 
position  in  which  I  lay. 

It  seemed  to  me  a  vastly  long  while  that  I  remained 
in  this  dreary  condition  of  half-consciousness,  with  no 
certain  knowledge  of  anything  save  the  pain  that  I 
suffered  ;  and  then  I  felt  some  one  touch  me,  and  a 
hand  laid  upon  my  heart;  and  this  touch  so  far  roused 
me  that  I  heaved  a  long  sigh  and  slowly  opened  my 
eyes.  For  a  moment  I  did  not  know  the  face  that  I 
saw  bending  over  me ;  nor  was  this  wonderful,  for  in 
place  of  its  usual  ruddiness  was  a  death-like  pallor, 
that  was  the  more  marked  by  contrast  with  the  blood 
that  trickled  down  over  it  from  a  great  gash  across 
the  brow  whereby  the  bone  was  laid  bare.  But  there 
was  no  mistaking  the  voice  that  called  out :  "  He's 
alive,  Rayburn  !"  and  added,  "  I  don't  see  what  right 
he's  got  t'  be  alive,  either,  after  a  crack  like  that.  I 
guess  studyin'  antiquities  must  everlastin'ly  harden 
an'  thicken  a  man's  skull !" 

"  Studying  engineering  doesn't  harden  a  man's  leg, 
anyway,"  I  heard  Rayburn  answer.  "  That  cut  pretty 
near  took  mine  off.  But  now  that  we've  stopped  the 
bleeding  I  guess  I'm  all  right.  I  think  I  can  work 


350  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

over  to  you  on  my  hands  and  knees  and  help  you  with 
the  Professor.  Now  that  I  know  he's  alive  I  seem  to 
be  a  lot  more  alive  myself." 

"  Just  you  stay  where  you  are,"  Young  called  back, 
sharply.  "If  you  move  you'll  start  that  bandage  an' 
I'll  have  t'  tie  you  up  all  over  again.  I'll  attend  t'  th' 
Professor."  And  then  Young  bent  over  me,  and,  with 
a  tenderness  that  I  never  would  have  thought  his 
rough  hands  capable  of,  set  himself  to  bandaging  my 
wounded  head.  But  the  best  thing  that  he  did  for 
me  was  to  give  me  a  draught  of  water  from  a  gourd 
that  had  been  slung  about  the  neck  of  one  of  the  sol 
diers  lying  dead  there ;  which  draught,  with  the  com 
fort  that  the  cool  wet  bandage  about  my  head  gave 
me,  brought  back  to  me  so  much  of  my  strength  that 
I  was  able  presently  to  sit  up  and  look  around. 

Truly,  a  more  ghastly  sight  than  that  which  my  eyes 
then  rested  upon  I  never  saw.  The  gate-way  of  the 
Citadel  was  a  very  shambles.  Piles  of  dead  men  lay 
all  around  me;  and  the  prodigious  number  of  the  ene 
my  lying  slain  there  testified  with  a  mute  eloquence 
to  the  desperate  fashion  in  which  our  handful  of  men 
had  fought.  Over  the  rough  pavement,  down  the  slope 
towards  the  lake,  there  flowed  a  stream  of  bright 
red  blood  that  in  places  shone  a  brilliant  vermilion 
where  it  was  touched  by  the  glintings  of  the  sun. 
Among  the  dead  I  did  not  see  Tizoc's  body,  and  for 
this  I  was  glad.  Half  a  dozen  of  the  enemy  stood  by 
us  as  a  guard;  but  these  suffered  us  to  minister  to 
each  other,  evidently  feeling  that  no  great  amount  of 
caution  was  necessary  in  dealing  with  three  badly 


DEFEAT.  351 

wounded  men.  Indeed,  these  guards,  in  their  way, 
manifested  a  kindly  feeling  for  us;  for  when  they  per 
ceived  that  our  gourd  of  water  was  empty  one  of  them 
picked  up  another  full  gourd  from  amid  the  dead  and 
handed  it  to  us.  From  inside  the  Citadel  there  still 
came  a  tumult  of  fierce  sounds  which  gave  proof  that 
though  the  battle — if  it  could  be  called  a  battle — was 
ended  the  work  of  killing  still  was  going  on ;  but  these 
sounds  sensibly  diminished  while  we  lay  there  waiting 
to  know  what  fate  would  come  to  us,  and  we  concluded, 
therefore,  that  there  remained  no  more  rebels  to  be 
slain. 

Rayburn  was  seated  upon  the  ground  at  no  great 
distance  from  me,  his  back  propped  against  the  wall. 
As  he  sa  w  that  I  was  looking  towards  him,  and  had 
again  my  wits  about  me,  he  greeted  me  with  a  very 
melancholy  smile.  "It's  been  a  pretty  cold  day  for 
us,  Professor,"  he  said, "  and  there's  no  great  comfort 
in  knowing  that  it's  partly  our  own  fault  that  these 
fellows  have  laid  us  out.  I  didn't  give  them  credit  for 
such  good  tactics ;  and  even  with  the  bad  watch  that 
we  kept  I  don't  see  how  they  managed  to  get  their 
men  round  on  the  other  side  of  our  camp.  Well,  it 
must  please  them  to  know  how  straight  we  walked  into 
the  trap  that  they  set  for  us,  like  the  pack  of  fools  that 
we  were." 

"You  won't  ketch  me  joinin'  in  any  more  Indian 
revolutions,  anyway,"  Young  put  in.  "I  did  think  I 
could  bet  on  those  Tlahuicos,  an'  they've  just  gone 
back  on  us  th'  worst  kind.  Do  you  feel  strong  enough, 
Professor,  to  tie  th'  ends  o'  this  rag  ?"  He  had  been 


352  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

binding  up  the  cut  in  his  forehead,  and  he  now  got 
down  on  his  hands  and  knees  in  front  of  me,  and  bent 
his  head  down  within  easy  reach  of  my  hands ;  and 
my  strength  had  so  far  returned  to  me  that  without 
being  very  tired  after  it  I  was  able  to  make  the  ends 
of  the  bandage  fast.  The  blow  on  his  head  had 
glanced  from  the  skull,  luckily;  but  it  had  been  heavy 
enough  to  stun  him  for  some  minutes  after  he  received 
it — and  his  falling  as  though  dead  had  been  the  means, 
no  doubt,  of  saving  his  life,  even  as  in  the  same  man 
ner  my  life  had  been  saved.  Rayburn's  wound  was  a 
worse  one  than  either  Young's  or  mine,  for  a  great 
gash  in  his  thigh  had  wellnigh  cut  his  leg  off,  and  un 
til,  with  Young's  help,  he  had  improvised  a  tourniquet, 
from  a  bowstring  and  a  broken  fragment  of  a  javelin, 
he  had  been  in  great  danger  of  bleeding  to  death. 

For  more  than  an  hour  we  were  suffered  to  lie  in 
the  gate- way ;  while  the  work  went  on  of  slaying  the 
wretched  Tlahuicos,  and  then  of  marshalling  the  more 
important  personages  who  had  been  reserved  alive  as 
prisoners,  and,  finally,  of  restoring  order  in  the  victori 
ous  ranks.  At  the  end  of  this  time  an  officer  with  a 
squad  of  men  came  to  where  we  were  lying,  and  rough 
ly  ordered  us  to  rise,  to  the  end  that  we  also  might  be 
placed  among  the  prisoners.  Young  and  I  had  so  far 
recovered  our  strength  that  we  managed  to  scramble 
on  our  feet  with  no  great  difficulty;  though  in  my  case 
this  exertion,  which  made  the  blood  flow  more  briskly 
in  my  veins,  suddenly  increased  so  greatly  the  pain  in 
my  head  as  to  bring  upon  me  for  a  little  while  a  dizzi 
ness  that  compelled  me  to  lean  against  the  wall  for 


DEFEAT.  353 

support.  In  Rayburn's  case  standing  was  quite  out  of 
the  question;  and  I  shortly  told  the  officer  in  what 
manner  he  was  wounded,  and  that  to  make  him  rise 
and  walk  assuredly  would  start  the  bandage  on  his  leg, 
and  so  lead  to  his  quickly  bleeding  to  death.  There 
upon  the  officer  gave  an  order  to  some  of  his  men  to 
fetch  a  stretcher  such  as  their  own  wounded  were  car 
ried  in ;  yet  at  the  same  time  he  said  to  me  :  "  This 
companion  of  yours  is  a  brave  man ;  and  but  for  my 
orders,  I  would  loosen  the  bandage  with  my  own  hands, 
and  so  let  him  die  without  further  pain ;"  which  speech, 
notwithstanding  the  obviously  kind  intention  of  it,  I 
did  not  translate  to  Rayburn  at  that  time. 

While  we  waited  for  the  stretcher  to  be  brought, 
the  soldiers  fastened  about  Young's  neck  and  about 
mine  heavy  wooden  collars,  which  set  well  out  over 
our  shoulders  and  were  not  unlike  great  ruffs.  I  con 
fess  that  for  my  own  part  my  professional  interest  in 
this  curious  piece  of  gear  entirely  overcame  my  repug 
nance  to  wearing  it,  for  I  instantly  recognized  it  as 
the  cuauh-cozatl,  with  which,  as  the  ancient  records 
tell  us,  the  Aztecs  were  accustomed  to  secure  their 
prisoners  of  war.  But  Young,  who  could  not  be  ex 
pected  to  share  in  my  delight  at  seeing  actually  alive, 
and  ourselves  made  party  to  it,  a  custom  that  was  sup 
posed  to  have  been  extinguished  for  more  than  three 
centuries,  grew  exceedingly  indignant  at  having  thus 
placed  about  his  neck  what  he  coarsely  described  as 

"  an  overgrown  d n  goose-yoke."     Nor  was  I  at 

all  successful  in  my  attempt  to  soothe  him  by  telling 
him  that  the  discomfort  to  which  we  were  subjected 
23 


354  THE  AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE!. 

was  a  very  trifling  matter  in  comparison  with  the  gain 
to  the  science  of  archaeology  that  flowed  from  this  pos 
itive  identification  of  an  exceedingly  interesting  his 
torical  fact. 

"  Oh,  come  off,  Professor,"  he  growled.    "  What  th' 

d 1  do  I  care  for  historical  facts,  or  for  historical 

lies  either? — an'  they're  all  about  th'  same  thing.  What 
I  want  t'  do  is  t'  punch  th'  head  o'  th'  fellow  who  put 
this  thing  on  me,  an'  I  can't.  They'll  be  hangin'  me 
up  by  my  heels  an'  stickin'  a  corn-cob  in  my  mouth 
next,  I  s'pose,  an'  makin'  a  regular  stuck-pig  out  o'  me  ; 
an'  then  likely  enough  you'll  try  t'  make  me  believe 
that  that  proves  something  or  other  that  nobody  but 
you  thinks  ever  happened,  an'  so  want  me  t'  feel  pleased 

about  it.     Antiquities  be  d d !     I've  had  as  much 

of  'em  as  I  want,  an'  more  too !"  And,  being  deliver 
ed  of  these  rudely  expressed  and  very  narrow-minded 
opinions, Young  lapsed  into  a  moody  silence. 

While  the  collars  were  being  placed  about  our  necks, 
and  while  Rayburn  was  being  lifted  upon  the  stretch 
er  which  the  soldiers  had  brought,  we  heard  from  with 
in  the  Citadel  the  sound  of  drums  tapping,  and  then  the 
measured  tread  of  soldiers  marching;  and  as  we  look 
ed  through  the  gate-way  we  saw  that  the  troops  had 
been  formed  in  regular  order  and  were  moving  towards 
us.  At  the  head  of  the  column  were  the  prisoners — 
numbering  three  or  four  hundred,  and  all  wearing 
wooden  collars  about  their  necks — covered  on  both 
flanks  by  a  strong  line  of  guards.  They  were  ranged 
in  order  of  their  dignity,  the  unlucky  members  of  the 
Council  coming  first,  and  after  them  the  other  officers 


DEFEAT.  355 

of  that  short -lived  government;  then  the  military 
officers,  and  in  the  rear  a  few  private  soldiers.  The 
fact  that  no  Tlahuicos  were  among  the  prisoners  led 
me  to  conclude  that  such  of  these  as  had  not  been  slain 
had  been  held  under  guard  until  they  might  be  re 
turned  to  their  owners  or  set  again  to  toiling  hope 
lessly  in  the  mine. 

The  importance  that  in  the  estimation  of  our  cap 
tors  attached  to  ourselves  was  shown  by  their  placing 
us  at  the  very  head  of  the  column,  in  advance  even  of 
the  members  of  the  Council;  and  this  was  a  compli 
ment  that  we  willingly  enough  would  have  declined, 
for  such  honorable  consideration,  according  to  the  cus 
toms  of  this  people,  meant  surely  that  we  were  re 
served  for  a  very  exemplary  fate.  But  we  were  in  no 
position  to  raise  objections  of  any  sort  just  then,  and 
we  therefore  fell  into  the  place  assigned  to  us  and  tried 
as  well  as  we  could  to  show  a  bold  front  as  we  went 
downward  towards  the  lake. 

Only  a  few  terrified  women  and  children,  who  fled 
away  as  we  advanced,  were  in  sight  as  we  passed 
through  the  streets  of  the  town  ;  and  from  many  of 
the  hovels  came  the  moans  of  poor  wounded  wretches 
who  had  crawled  to  their  miserable  homes  to  die  in 
them;  and  from  others  came  the  lamentations  of  wom 
en  over  their  dead ;  and  in  nooks  and  corners,  whither 
with  their  last  strength  they  had  dragged  themselves, 
we  saw  men  lying  dead  in  pools  of  their  own  blood. 
But  down  by  the  water-side  there  were  live  men  in 
plenty,  soldiers  and  oarsmen,  and  the  pier  was  crowd 
ed  with  them;  while  out  beyond  the  pier  the  whole 


356  THE   AZTEC  TKEASUBE-HOUSE. 

bay  was  swarming  with  the  boats  in  which  the  enemy's 
forces  had  stolen  down  upon  us  in  the  darkness  from 
Culhuacan ;  making  their  landing,  as  we  now  learned, 
just  beyond  the  town  in  a  bay  that  ran  up  close  to 
where  our  army  was  encamped.  And  this  scene  of 
bustling  activity  in  the  bright  sunshine  made  a  joyous 
and  brilliant  picture  ;  that  was  all  the  brighter  because 
of  its  setting  in  that  sunlit  bay,  opening  out  between 
beaches  of  golden-yellow  sand  upon  the  broad  expanse 
of  restful  water  which  fell  away  in  gleaming  splendor 
into  a  bank  of  soft  gray  haze. 

But  the  picture  was  still  more  stirring  that  we  saw 
as  we  looked  landward,  when  the  barge  that  we  were 
put  aboard  of  pulled  out  from  the  pier  and  our  rowers 
lay  on  their  oars,  and  so  waited  while  the  work  of 
embarkation  went  on.  Right  in  front  of  us  was  the 
broad  central  street  of  the  town ;  and  the  whole  length 
of  this,  from  the  pier  to  the  Citadel,  was  filled  with  a 
solidly  massed  body  of  soldiers  that  came  down  the 
steep  descent  slowly,  and  halting  often,  to  the  boats 
which  were  in  waiting  to  bear  them  away.  Barbarians 
though  they  were,  these  soldiers  made  a  gallant  show 
ing.  In  front  of  each  regiment  was  borne  its  feather 
standard,  and  in  the  midst  of  each  company  was  its 
rallying  flag  of  brightly  painted  cotton  cloth.  The 
higher  officers  wore  wooden  casques,  carved  and  paint 
ed  in  the  semblance  of  the  heads  of  ferocious  beasts; 
the  cotton-cloth  armor  of  all  the  officers  was  decked 
with  a  great  variety  of  strange  devices,  wrought  in 
very  lively  hues,  and  similarly  strong  hues  were  used 
in  the  decoration  of  the  universally -carried  light  round 


DEFEAT.  357 

shields.  And  all  this  brilliant  color,  the  more  vivid 
because  of  its  background  of  bare  brown  skins,  was 
flecked  with  a  thousand  glittering  points  of  light  where 
the  sunshine  sparkled  on  swords  and  on  spear-heads  of 
hardened  gold. 

"  It's  not  much  wonder  that  those  fellows  got  away 
with  us,"  Rayburn  said,  as  he  watched  the  orderly 
manner  in  which  the  disciplined  ranks  moved  out  upon 
the  pier  and  stepped  briskly  into  the  boats  at  the  word 
of  command.  "  They're  as  fine  a  lot  of  fighters  as  I 
ever  saw  anywhere.  Just  look  how  steadily  they  stand 
at  a  halt,  and  how  sharply  they  obey  orders,  and  how 
well  set  up  they  are  !  I  must  say  I  don't  see  what  the 
Colonel  could  have  been  thinking  about  when  he  said 
that  we  had  a  fighting  chance  against  an  army  like 
that.  Well,  he's  paid  for  his  mistake  about  as  much 
as  a  man  can  pay  for  anything.  It  breaks  me  all 
up  to  think  that  the  Colonel  is  dead.  He  was  good 
all  the  way  through.  And  I  wonder  what  will  become 
of  that  little  lame  boy  of  his  now?  They'll  make  a 
Tlahuico  of  him,  I  suppose.  By  Jove !  what  a  mess 
we've  made  of  this  whole  business  from  first  to  last !" 

My  heart  was  too  heavy  for  me  to  answer  Rayburn 
save  by  a  nod;  for  while  he  spoke  the  thought  came 
home  to  me  very  bitterly  that  upon  me  rested  the  re 
sponsibility  of  the  black  misfortune  in  which  he  and 
Young  were  involved;  and  with  this  came  also  a  great 
burst  of  sorrow  as  I  thought  how  still  more  closely  at 
my  door  lay  Pablo's  death — for  Rayburn  and  Young 
at  least  had  come  into  my  plans  with  a  reasonable  un 
derstanding  of  the  danger  to  which  they  exposed  them- 


358  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

selves ;  but  Pablo,  having  no  such  knowledge,  had  fol 
lowed  me  unquestioningly  because  of  his  loving  trust 
that  I  would  hold  him  safe  from  harm.  My  sorrow 
concerning  Fray  Antonio  was  keen  enough,  Heaven 
knows;  but  in  his  case  I  had  the  solace  of  knowing 
surely  that  he  had  come  to  his  death  not  because  of 
my  urging,  but  in  pursuance  of  his  own  strong  desire. 
There  was  a  little  comfort  in  the  thought  that  even 
one  of  these  four  lost  lives  could  not  be  charged  to  my 
account;  and  yet  this  reflection  seemed  only  to  make 
my  sorrow  heavier  as  I  thought  of  the  woful  weight 
of  my  responsibility  for  the  other  three. 

For  nearly  two  hours  we  lay  there  in  the  bay  while 
the  embarkation  of  the  prisoners  and  the  troops  went 
on — our  boat  moving  farther  out  from  the  pier  from 
time  to  time  as  the  double  line  of  boats  behind  it 
lengthened.  In  that  sheltered  place  there  was  little 
wind  blowing,  and  the  blazing  heat  of  the  sun  beating 
down  upon  my  wounded  head  gave  me  so  sharp  a  pain 
that  I  gladly  would  have  died  to  be  rid  of  it;  and  I 
could  see,  from  the  drawn  look  of  their  faces,  that 
Young  and  Rayburn  were  suffering  not  less  keenly. 
We  were  thankful  enough,  therefore,  when  at  last  the 
embarkation  was  completed  —  more  than  half  of  the 
army  remaining  in  Huitzilan  to  restore  order  there — 
and  we  pulled  out  from  the  bay  into  the  open  waters 
of  the  lake  and  were  comforted  by  the  light  breeze, 
which  yet  brought  with  it  a  delicious  refreshment,  that 
was  blowing  there. 

All  the  bright  beauty  of  that  lovely  lake  was  around 
us,  having  for  its  background  the  green  meadows  and 


EL    SABIO'S    DEFIANCE.  359 

the  darker  green  of  the  forests  hanging  above  them 
on  the  upward  slopes,  and  beyond  all  the  towering 
height  of  the  cliffs,  which  shaded  in  their  colorings 
from  delicate  gray  to  dark  brown,  and  were  touched 
here  and  there  by  patches  of  black  shadow  where 
some  great  cleft  opened ;  and  yet  all  that  we  then 
thought  of  was  that  across  those  blue  waters,  which 
gleamed  golden  in  the  sunlight,  we  were  going  swiftly 
to  a  cruel  death,  and  that  the  cliffs,  whereof  the  beau 
ty  was  hateful  to  us,  irrevocably  shut  us  in.  Which 
gloomy  feelings  pressed  upon  us  throughout  that  dis 
mal  passage,  while  all  our  oarsmen  pulled  stoutly  to 
gether,  and  we  went  gliding  onward  over  the  sunlit 
waters  towards  the  evil  fate  that  we  knew  was  wait 
ing  for  us  within  the  dark  walls  whereby  was  encircled 
the  city  of  Culhuacan. 


XXXII. 

EL    SABIO'S    DEFIANCE. 

WHILE  yet  we  were  a  long  way  off  from  the  city, 
we  heard  faintly  the  yells  of  triumph  with  which  the 
watchers  above  the  water-gate  gave  notice  to  those 
within  the  walls  of  the  return  of  the  victorious  army; 
and  from  all  the  boats  of  our  flotilla  there  went  up  a 
shrill  chorus  of  answering  yells.  Our  barge  was  the 
first  to  pass  through  the  water-gate,  out  from  which 
we  had  come  so  gallantly  so  short  a  time  before,  and 
thence  went  onward  across  the  basin  to  the  very  pier 


360  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOTJSE. 

that  we  had  started  from  with  such  high  hopes  to 
gather  the  forces  for  the  rebellion  that  had  come  to  so- 
sorry  an  end. 

All  the  water-side  was  black  with  the  crowd  that 
had  gathered  to  watch  our  landing;  but,  considering 
that  these  people  were  there  to  welcome  a  victorious 
army,  it  seemed  to  me  that  they  were  strangely  still 
and  dull.  There  was,  to  be  sure,  no  lack  of  yelling,  but 
it  came  for  the  most  part  from  a  company  of  priests 
clustered  on  the  pier  where  we  landed,  and  from 
the  soldiers  and  oarsmen  in  the  boats — not  from  the 
townsfolk  at  large.  And  when  we  were  marched  up 
ward  through  the  city — following  the  same  street  that 
we  had  fought  our  way  along  when  last  we  traversed 
it — I  saw  in  the  crowd  so  many  sullen  and  dejected 
faces  that  it  seemed  to  me  there  still  was  in  that  city 
a  good  deal  of  material  for  the  making  of  another 
mutiny. 

This  time  we  were  not  taken  to  the  house  in  which 
we  had  met  the  Priest  Captain,  and  whence  we  had 
been  delivered  from  imprisonment  by  Tizoc's  gallant 
rescue  of  us ;  but,  passing  a  little  beyond  this  house, 
we  were  led  up  a  broad  stair-way  to  the  plateau  which 
crowned  the  city,  and  on  which  stood  the  great  Treas 
ure-house  that  also  was  the  temple  in  which  the  Azt- 
lanecas  housed  their  most  venerated  gods.  And  I 
confess  that  my  delight  at  seeing  closely  this  building, 
that  until  then  I  had  beheld  only  from  afar  off,  for  a 
time  completely  overcame  the  dread  and  sorrow  that 
had  oppressed  me ;  and  the  very  strongest  desire  that 
stirred  within  me  just  then  was  for  a  tape-measure 


EL    SABIO'S    DEFIANCE.  361 

and  a  pair  of  compasses  and  a  steel  square,  together 
with  the  opportunity  to  fall  to  work  with  these  several 
instruments  upon  those  mighty  walls.  Indeed,  I  almost 
had  forgotten  that  I  was  a  prisoner,  and  was  like  to 
die  soon  a  very  dreadful  death,  when  a  groan  that  poor 
Rayburn  gave — wrung  from  him  by  the  pain  that  he 
suffered  in  being  carried  up  the  stairs  —  recalled  me 
suddenly  to  a  realizing  sense  of  our  situation,  and  so 
pressed  home  upon  me  the  sad  conviction  that  the 
science  of  archaeology  would  gain  nothing  of  all  that 
I  might  see  or  learn  during  the  little  while  that  I 
should  remain  alive. 

The  outer  facing  of  the  plateau,  like  that  of  the 
terraces  below  it,  was  a  prodigiously  heavy  wall  of 
squared  stones  set  in  cement ;  and  for  a  coping  this 
wall  had  great  stones  carved  in  the  similitude  of  ser 
pents'  heads,  with  mouths  wide  open,  that  instantly 
recalled  to  my  mind  the  like  enclosure  that  the  Span 
iards  found  surrounding  the  principal  temple  in  the 
city  of  Tenochtitlan — and  I  had  a  sudden  strong  long 
ing  that  my  friend  Bandelier  might  be  with  me  at  that 
moment  to  see  how  precisely  his  very  ingenious  specu 
lations  concerning  the  snake-wall  about  the  great  Teo- 
calli  were  here  confirmed. 

Through  a  portal  formed  of  two  huge  blocks  of  stone 
carved  to  represent  two  serpents  coiled  upon  them 
selves,  the  heads  meeting  above  in  a  sort  of  arch  (not 
a  true  arch,  for  each  of  these  serpents  was  a  monolith, 
and  was  supported  wholly  on  its  own  base),  we  entered 
the  large  enclosure  before  the  temple.  I  was  sur 
prised  to  find— for  of  such  a  thing  among  the  ancient 


362  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Aztecs  there  is  no  record  —  that  in  the  centre  of  the 
enclosure  the  rock  had  been  hewn  away  in  such  a  fash 
ion  as  to  create  a  vast  amphitheatre;  and  that  this  was 
the  place  where  sacrifice  was  offered  by  the  priests  was 
shown  by  the  blood-stained  altar  in  the  centre  of  it, 
to  which  fragments  of  flesh  also  adhered,  whence  was 
wafted  up  to  us  a  dreadful  stench  that  instantly  rack 
ed  us  with  queasy  qualms.  Save  directly  in  front  of 
the  entrance  to  the  temple,  where  was  a  great  stone 
balcony  with  a  smaller  balcony  below  it,  all  the  sides 
of  the  amphitheatre  were  cut  in  steps,  which  made, 
also,  benches  where  the  multitude  could  sit  at  their 
ease  and  behold  the  bloody  work  going  on  in  the  pit 
below  them;  and  so  enormous  was  this  rock-hewn  cav 
ity  that  fully  forty  thousand  people  could  at  once  be 
seated  there.  Under  the  balcony  there  was  visible  the 
entrance  to  a  dark  tunnel-like  passage,  that  evidently 
communicated  with  the  temple,  and  a  smaller  passage, 
not  large  enough  for  a  man  to  pass  through,  slanted 
downward  to  where  it  opened  on  the  terrace  below ; 
which  last  was  to  drain  the  blood  away,  and  also  to 
free  the  amphitheatre  from  water  in  the  season  of  rains. 
We  held  our  noses  as  we  skirted  this  shocking  place, 
and  we  were  glad  enough  when  we  got  beyond  it  and 
came  to  the  entrance  to  the  temple — a  very  noble  por 
tal,  severely  simple,  and  because  of  its  simplicity  the 
more  majestic,  in  which,  as  in  the  whole  of  the  fa9ade, 
was  manifest  the  grave  and  sombre  Egyptian  feeling 
that  I  had  before  observed.  Through  this  we  passed 
into  the  shadowy  interior,  lighted  by  only  a  few  narrow 
slits  cut  in  the  enormously  thick  walls,  where  the  lofty 


EL   SABIO'S    DEFIANCE.  363 

roof  was  upheld  by  a  wilderness  of  columns  which  open 
ed  before  us  seemingly  endless  vistas  where  an  eter 
nal  twilight  reigned.  Of  interior  decoration  there  was 
nothing  save  a  broad  and  simple  panelling  upon  the 
walls,  and  the  great  pillars  were  mere  round  monoliths 
without  either  bases  or  capitals. 

As  we  entered  this,  to  them,  most  sacred  place  a 
hush  fell  upon  our  escort,  and  even  I  felt  something  of 
that  reverent  awe  that  is  inspired  by  any  building 
which  has  been  sanctified  by  the  worship  of  multitudes 
within  it  through  countless  years.  But  that  Young  did 
not  at  all  share  this  feeling  with  me  was  made  mani 
fest  by  his  observing,  after  taking  a  long  look  around 
him:  "Well,  this  wouldn't  answer  for  a  Congrega 
tional  church,  anyway.  There  ain't  a  pew  in  th'  whole 
place,  an'  here  in  broad  daylight  you  couldn't  see  a 
hymn-book  if  you  tried.  I  wonder  what  they'd  say, 
Professor,  to  a  bid  for  puttin'  in  a  dynamo  for  'em  an' 
lightin'  this  dark  old  hole  with  electricity?  An'  it  'u'd 
take  off  a  lot  o'  this  chill  an'  dampness  if  they'd  have  a 
steam-heater  put  in  at  th'  same  time.  It's  enough  t' 
give  all  hands  rheumatism  th'  way  cold  creeps  strike 
up  your  legs."  But  at  this  point  Young's  observa 
tions  were  cut  short  peremptorily  by  the  hand  that  one 
of  the  guards  laid  across  his  mouth ;  which  hint  that 
it  was  desirable  for  him  to  keep  silence  was  quite  un 
mistakable. 

This  decided  repression  of  Young's  chattering,  no 
doubt,  was  the  more  vigorous  because  we  now  were 
approaching  the  farther  end  of  the  temple,  where 
loomed  before  us  amid  the  shadows  a  great  idol,  set 


364  THE    AZTEC   TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

upon  an  altar-like  throne.  This  figure,  fully  ten  feet 
high,  was  a  strange  medley  of  grotesque  and  hideous 
carvings  that  yet  in  its  entirety  was  like  a  man ;  and 
so  cruel  and  so  ferocious  was  the  general  air  of  it  that 
it  well  might  inspire  a  very  lively  terror  in  simple 
souls.  The  most  striking  feature  of  the  figure  was  a 
dismal  skull,  that  was  outheld  from  the  region  of  the 
waist  by  two  great  hands  placed  there  arbitrarily  and 
without  any  relation  to  the  figure's  arms ;  and  for  a 
crest — repeating  the  motive  of  the  gate- way — it  had 
two  serpents'  heads,  the  bodies  pertaining  to  which 
were  twisted  and  involved  about  the  whole  mass.  For 
eyes  this  evil  thing  had  large  and  gleaming  green 
stones — being,  in  truth,  emeralds,  though  I  did  not  at 
that  time  recognize  them  as  such  —  and  golden  ser 
pents,  very  beautifully  wrought,  were  twisted  about  it, 
and  a  collar  of  golden  hearts  was  hung  around  its  neck 
over  a  sort  of  apron  of  shining  green  feathers  ;  and 
feathers  of  a  like  sort  rose  above  the  heads  of  the  ser 
pents  in  a  thick  plume ;  and  over  every  part  of  the 
figure  were  scattered  glittering  objects — emeralds,  and 
disks  of  gold,  and  scraps  of  mother-o'-pearl,  and  frag 
ments  of  obsidian — whence  shone  through  the  heavy 
shadows  faint,  shimmering  points  of  light.  In  one  of 
its  out-stretched  hands  the  figure  held  a  bow,  and  in 
the  other  a  bunch  of  arrows ;  but  even  without  these 
unmistakable  attributes  I  should  have  known  from  the 
skull  and  from  the  serpents'  heads  that  this  fierce  and 
hideous  idol  represented  the  god  Huitzilopochtli  :  the 
first  divinity,  and  throughout  the  whole  time  that  their 
bloody  religion  endured,  the  principal  divinity,  that 


EL   SABIO'S    DEFIANCE.  365 

the  ancient  Mexicans  adored.  Young  did  not  venture 
to  speak  aloud  again,  but  he  turned  to  me  with  a  long 
sigh  and  whispered,  earnestly,  "  That  certainly  is,  Pro 
fessor,  the  very  d dest  thing  I  ever  saw  !" 

As  I  knew,  it  was  in  keeping  with  the  Aztec 
customs  that  prisoners  taken  in  war  thus  should  be 
brought  first  of  all  before  the  god  Huitzilopochtli,  that 
they  and  their  captors  together  might  do  him  rever 
ence  ;  therefore,  I  was  not  surprised  when  a  priest 
came  forth  from  behind  the  altar  and  bade  us  pros 
trate  ourselves  in  adoration  of  the  idol.  As  this  order 
was  given,  all  the  Aztlanecas  with  us  bowed  them 
selves  to  the  floor  ;  but  Young,  who  did  not  under 
stand  the  order,  and  I,  who  felt  my  gorge  rising  at 
the  thought  of  thus  humbling  myself,  remained  erect. 
However,  we  did  not  continue  through  many  seconds 
in  that  position ;  for  a  couple  of  soldiers  instantly  laid 
hands  upon  each  of  us,  and  by  shoving  our  shoulders 
sharply  forward,  and  at  the  same  moment  kicking  our 
legs  from  under  us,  they  summarily  laid  us  face  down 
ward  at  full  length  upon  the  floor.  As  for  Rayburn, 
they  seemed  to  be  satisfied  with  his  recumbent  posi 
tion  upon  the  stretcher ;  at  any  rate,  they  suffered  him 
to  remain  as  he  was. 

While  I  lay  prone,  quivering  with  rage  at  the  double 
indignity  of  being  thus  roughly  handled,  and  of  being 
compelled  even  in  form  to  worship  a  disgusting  idol, 
I  heard  an  odd  little  pattering  upon  the  stone  floor,  and 
then  something  cold  and  clammy  was  thrust  against 
my  hand,  and  at  the  same  instant  I  heard  close  beside 
me  a  curious  snuffling  noise  ;  and  while  a  glad  doubt, 


366  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

that  I  scarce  ventured  to  give  way  to,  was  rising 
within  me,  the  clammy  thing  was  taken  away  from 
my  hand,  and  there  straightway  rang  out  through  the 
gloomy  silence  of  the  temple  a  thunderous  braying 
that  seemed  fairly  to  shake  the  walls.  There  was  no 
mistaking  the  voice  of  the  friend  who  with  this  tri 
umphant  blast  welcomed  me ;  and  as  I  heard  it  there 
came  into  my  heart  a  sudden  glow  of  hope  that  Pablo, 
and  that  even  Fray  Antonio  also,  might  still  be  alive. 
And  this  hope  was  destined  to  be  immediately  and 
most  joyfully  realized,  for  as  we  rose  to  our  feet  again 
I  saw  the  lad  standing,  with  El  Sabio  beside  him,  not 
a  dozen  feet  away  from  me ;  and  a  little  beyond  them 
was  the  monk,  his  face  all  lighted  up  with  a  bright 
look  of  happiness  and  love.  And  seeing  these  three 
once  more  standing  alive  and  well  before  me  was  the 
most  amazing  and  also  the  very  gladdest  sight  that 
ever  met  my  eyes. 

It  was  a  sore  trial  to  me  that  I  could  not  immediate 
ly  hold  converse  with  Pablo  and  with  Fray  Antonio, 
and  so  come  to  know  through  what  adventures  they 
had  passed,  and  by  what  miracles  their  lives  had  been 
saved;  but  the  ceremony  in  which  our  captors  were 
engaged  was  but  half  completed,  and  the  better  to  as 
sure  our  orderly  conduct  during  its  continuance  we 
were  kept  asunder  in  the  procession  that  then  was 
formed — the  object  of  which  procession,  as  my  knowl 
edge  of  the  Aztec  customs  led  me  rightly  to  infer, 
was  that  the  ceremonial  of  triumph  might  be  ended  by 
leading  us  thrice  around  the  sacrificial  stone.  And  in 
truth  I  dreaded  less  the  fate  which  this  leading  us 


367 

about  the  altar  of  sacrifice  implied  was  in  store  for  us 
than  I  did  the  close  association,  made  necessary  by  the 
ceremony,  with  the  direful  stench  which  that  vile  altar 
exhaled. 

At  the  edge  of  the  amphitheatre,  where  already  the 
evil  odor  was  almost  overpowering,  the  soldiers  who 
had  charge  of  us  relinquished  us — as  it  seemed  to  me, 
most  thankfully — to  a  company  of  the  temple  priests ; 
whereof  the  chief  was  a  round,  fat  little  man,  whose 
shortness  of  legs  very  obviously  was  accompanied  by 
a  corresponding  shortness  of  wind.  He  was,  in  truth, 
a  most  hopelessly  undignified  little  personage;  yet  he 
did  his  best  to  assume  a  look  of  dignity  as  he  waddled 
down  the  steps  in  advance  of  us,  and  he  manfully  en 
deavored  to  conceal  the  difficulties  encountered  by  his 
short  fat  legs  in  the  course  of  this  descent.  And  I  was 
glad  enough  that  we  had  his  absurd  performances  to 
distract  our  minds  a  little  from  the  dismalness  of  our 
surroundings,  and  especially  from  the  queasiness  that 
again  beset  our  stomachs  as  our  noses  were  assailed 
more  and  more  violently  by  that  most  evil  smell.  The 
priests,  I  observed,  had  cotton  stuffed  in  their  nostrils; 
but  for  us  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  hold  our 
noses  tightly  with  our  hands. 

El  Sabio,  who  had  a  most  generous  and  broadly 
open  nose,  and  who  was  not  blest  with  hands  to  hold  it 
fast  with,  grew  restive  as  the  first  whiff  struck  him; 
which  resulted  less,  I  suppose,  from  the  intrinsic  vile- 
ness  of  the  smell  than  from  the  fact  that  he,  in  common 
with  all  peace-loving  animals,  had  aroused  in  him  an 
instinctive  terror  by  the  odor  of  blood.  Pablo's  voice, 


368  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-IIOUSE. 

and  Pablo's  touch,  possibly  might  have  soothed  and 
quieted  him;  but  the  efforts  which  the  priests  who 
were  leading  him  made  to  restrain  him  only  served  the 
more  to  terrify  him,  and  so  to  increase  his  violence. 
And  the  priests,  who  now  for  a  considerable  time  had 
seen  him  daily,  and  had  known  him  only  as  the  most 
gentle  and  biddable  of  creatures,  were  mightily  aston 
ished,  and  evidently  were  terrified,  by  this  sudden  out 
break  of  a  fierce  temper  that  most  reasonably  took 
them  entirely  by  surprise.  Partly  by  pulling  at  the 
rope  that  they  had  about  his  neck,  and  partly  by  such 
pushes  as  they  dared  to  give  him  while  he  was  momen 
tarily  at  rest,  they  succeeded  in  forcing  him  down  the 
steps ;  and  so  at  last  into  the  large  circular  space  at 
the  bottom  of  the  amphitheatre,  in  the  midst  of  which 
stood  the  stone  of  sacrifice  and  where  the  smell  of 
blood  was  overpoweringly  strong.  But  by  the  time 
that  this  victory  was  won  El  Sabio  had  ceased  to  be 
a  quiet  orderly  donkey,  accustomed  to  conform  to  the 
usages  of  human  society,  and  had  become  a  veritable 
crazy  creature,  inflamed  by  the  madness  of  fear  and  rage. 
By  some  miracle — a  very  happy  miracle  for  those 
whom  the  poor  ass  most  naturally  regarded  as  his  tor 
mentors — El  Sabio's  nimble  heels  had  until  this  mo 
ment  lashed  the  air  harmlessly ;  but  just  as  the  last 
step  downward  was  accomplished  he  let  out  both  of  his 
hind-legs  together,  and  with  such  precision  that  both  of 
his  hoofs  struck  a  remarkably  tall  priest  who  had  taken 
a  very  active  part  in  persecuting  him.  The  blow  was 
landed  fairly  on  the  tall  priest's  stomach,  and  instantly 
the  two  long  halves  of  that  priest  shut  together  like  a 


369 

jack-knife,  and  he  fell  to  the  ground  with  a  gasp  that 
told  how  thoroughly  the  wind  was  knocked  out  of  him. 
Doubtless  this  outburst  of  violence  served  but  to  in 
crease  El  Sabio's  terror,  for  he  straightway  gave  so 
strong  a  plunge  that  he  fairly  broke  away  from  the  men 
who  were  holding  him ;  and  then  he  bent  all  his  ener 
gies  to  working  such  destruction  as  never  was  worked 
by  one  single  ass  since  the  very  beginning  of  the  world! 
Fortunately  for  our  own  safety  —  for  El  Sabio  was 
in  no  condition  to  discriminate  between  friends  and 
foes — we  still  were  at  some  distance  from  the  bottom 
of  the  amphitheatre  when  this  outbreak  occurred ;  the 
greater  part  of  the  priests  having  preceded  us,  and  El 
Sabio  having  been  led  in  the  van  of  the  prisoners.  It 
was  wholly  upon  the  priests,  therefore,  that  his  mad 
rage  was  expended,  and  the  way  that  he  "got  in  his 
work,"  as  Young  expressed  it,  on  these  enemies  of  his 
and  ours  was  a  joyful  wonder  to  behold.  Being  closely 
penned  in — for  the  way  whence  they  had  entered  the 
amphitheatre  was  barred  by  the  crowd  of  which  we 
were  a  part,  and  the  entrance  to  the  subterranean  pas 
sage  leading  to  the  temple  was  closed — the  priests  had 
no  chance  to  escape  from  the  furious  creature  save  by 
clambering  up  the  smooth  wall,  fully  eight  feet  high, 
by  which  was  enclosed  the  circular  space  that  imme 
diately  surrounded  the  altar.  Even  an  agile  man,  go 
ing  at  it  quietly,  would  have  found  a  little  difficulty 
in  executing  this  gymnastic  feat,  that  required  for  its 
accomplishment  sheer  lifting  of  the  body  until  a  leg 
could  be  thrown  over  the  top  of  the  wall ;  and  as  these 
priests,  for  the  most  part,  had  grown  fat  and  sluggish 
24 


370  THE    AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

in  their  sacred  calling,  they  were  wellnigh  incapacitat 
ed  from  performing  it.  Furthermore,  El  Sabio  mani 
fested  what  had  the  appearance  of  being  a  most  dia 
bolical  ingenuity  —  yet  that,  no  doubt,  was  no  more 
than  chance  —  in  delivering  flying  kicks  against  the 
legs  of  these  dangling  creatures  ;  wherefrom  such  keen 
pain  resulted  that  they  instantly  let  loose  their  hold, 
and  came  tumbling  to  the  ground. 

So  far  as  we  were  concerned — our  sympathies  being 
wholly  on  the  side  of  the  ass — this  astonishing  spectacle 
remained  a  broad  farce  until  the  very  end  ;  but  it  pres 
ently  became  to  the  men  engaged  in  it  a  very  serious 
tragedy.  As  he  made  his  wild  charges,  El  Sabio  gal 
loped  backward  and  forward  again  and  again  over  the 
bodies  of  his  prostrate  enemies ;  in  the  course  of  which 
gallopings  his  sharp  little  hoofs  cut  their  naked  flesh 
savagely,  and  now  and  then,  when  he  happened  to 
land  a  kick  fairly  against  a  man's  body,  we  could  see, 
from  the  sinking  in  of  the  fellow's  ribs  and  the  gush  of 
blood  that  burst  from  his  nostrils,  that  the  ass  had  de 
livered  a  death-blow. 

As  for  the  noise  that  attended  this  most  extraor 
dinary  performance,  words  can  but  faintly  describe  it. 
From  the  men  directly  engaged  with  El  Sabio  came 
yells  of  fear  and  shouts  for  assistance  and  cries  of 
anger,  beneath  all  of  which  was  a  dull  undertone  of 
groans ;  the  crowd  around  us  and  higher  up  behind  us 
gave  vent  to  a  shrill  roar  of  shouts  and  yells  that  seemed 
to  be  partly  in  the  nature  of  advice,  and  partly  the  re 
sult  of  that  instinct  which  prompts  all  barbarians  tc 
yell  whenever  anybody  else  yells,  on  general  principles. 


EL    SABIO'S    DEFIANCE.  371 

Pablo  interpolated  a  most  despairing  note  in  the  way 
of  beseeching  cries  of  "  B-u-r-r-r-o  !  B-u-r-r-r-o !"  where 
by  he  sought  to  allay  El  Sabio's  frenzy,  and  so  to  save 
him  from  the  direful  fate  that  well  might  be  expected 
to  overtake  him  in  recompense  of  his  direful  deeds ; 
and  Young  fairly  tossed  his  battered  Derby  hat  up  into 
the  air  as  he  shouted:  "  Go  it,  El  Sabio !  Give  it  to 
'em,  my  boy  !  Ten  t'  one  against  th'  fat  priest !  Three 
cheers  for  th'  jackass!  Hip-hip-hurrah!"  In  short, 
it  seemed  as  though  Bedlam  had  broken  loose  among 
us,  and  as  though  all  of  us  together  were  going  mad. 

What  with  dodging  behind  his  fellows,  and  keeping 
clear  of  El  Sabio's  frantic  charges  by  the  display  of  an 
agility  that  I  would  not  have  given  him  credit  for,  the 
little  fat  priest  managed  to  preserve  his  small  round 
body  unharmed  until  all  of  his  companions  had  either 
escaped  over  the  wall  or  had  been,  as  Young  put  it, 
knocked  out  by  El  Sabio's  heels.  Once  or  twice  he 
had  made  a  dash  for  the  passage-way  in  which  we  were 
standing,  but  the  lower  end  of  this  was  choked  with 
the  dozen  or  more  badly  wounded  wretches  who  had 
crawled  thither  in  their  efforts  to  escape  ;  and  these 
the  priests  in  front  of  us,  being  but  cowardly  creatures, 
had  made  no  effort  to  succor  or  to  lift  away,  for  the 
reason  that  so  long  as  this  barrier  remained  they  them 
selves  were  safe  from  El  Sabio's  fury. 

Having,  therefore,  no  longer  any  one  to  hide  behind, 
the  fat  little  priest  evidently  realized  that  his  only 
hope  of  salvation  lay  in  making  an  effort,  truly  heroic 
in  one  of  his  height  and  girth  and  woful  shortness  of 
to  clamber  up  the  face  of  tfce  wall  j  and  to 


372  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

wellnigh  impossible  task  he  most  resolutely  set  him 
self.  It  was  only  by  jumping  that  he  was  able  to  get 
a  grip  over  the  top  of  the  wall ;  yet  when  this  grip 
was  gained  he  could  get  no  farther  on  his  way  to  de 
liverance,  and  so  he  hung  dangling  there,  his  face  to 
the  wall,  jerking  his  short  fat  legs  about  spasmodically, 
and  wasting  in  most  piercing  yells  what  little  there 
was  in  him  of  wind. 

It  did  really  seem  as  though  El  Sabio's  action  in 
these  premises  was  dictated  by  reason,  for  when  he  saw 
the  priest  in  this  wholly  unprotected  position  he  delib 
erately  took  his  stand  at  precisely  the  point  behind  the 
little  man  where  all  of  his  kicking  power  could  be 
most  effectively  used.  There  was  a  momentary  hush 
as  El  Sabio  thus  placed  himself,  for  every  one  perceived 
how  very  open  was  the  priest  to  assault;  and  at  the 
same  time  it  was  apparent  that  while  El  Sabio's  kicks 
assuredly  would  be  exceedingly  painful,  they  were  not 
likely  to  inflict  upon  the  priest,  while  he  remained  in 
that  attitude,  a  deadly  wound.  In  an  instant  the  two 
small  heels  flashed  through  the  air,  and  there  was 
heard  a  dull,  soft  sound — such  as  might  come  from  the 
striking  of  an  over-ripe  melon  with  a  heavy  club — and 
with  this  burst  forth  a  most  piercing  shriek  of  pain. 
Yet  the  little  priest,  knowing  that  his  life  depended 
upon  it,  most  gallantly  retained  his  hold.  Again  El 
Sabio  kicked,  and  again  a  piercing  shriek  sounded ;  and 
one  hand  loosened  for  a  moment  and  then  clutched  fast 
again.  But  when  El  Sabio  kicked  for  the  third  time 
human  nature  was  too  weak  to  resist  further  against 
brute  violence.  With  a  yell  that  fairly  cracked  our 


IN   THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE.  373 

ears  the  priest  let  go  his  hold  and  fell  downward  and 
backward ;  and  at  that  same  instant  El  Sabio  delivered 
a  final  kick  that  struck  fairly  on  the  head  of  the  fall 
ing  man  and  battered  in  his  skull. 

As  for  El  Sabio,  it  seemed  as  though  he  himself  were 
like  to  die  in  the  very  moment  of  his  victory  ;  for 
with  a  sort  of  groan  that,  coming  from  a  brute  beast, 
was  most  pitiful  to  listen  to,  the  poor  terrified  creat 
ure,  utterly  exhausted  by  his  fright  and  his  outlay  of 
energy  in  furious  violence,  sank  down  panting  by  the 
side  of  the  man  whom  he  had  slain. 


xxxm. 

IN   THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

EVEN  with  El  Sabio  reduced  to  this  condition  of 
complete  quiescence,  the  Aztlanecas,  soldiers  as  well  as 
priests,  still  were  terribly  afraid  of  him ;  being  firmly 
convinced,  as  was  not  at  all  unnatural,  that  for  the 
time  being  there  was  embodied  in  him  a  devil  of  a 
most  dangerous  sort.  Therefore  they  were  but  too 
glad  to  yield  to  Pablo's  burning  eagerness  to  get  to 
the  poor  ass ;  and  when  he  called  for  aid  to  carry  the 
exhausted  creature  out  from  the  amphitheatre,  and  so 
away  from  among  the  dead  and  wounded  and  from 
the  dreadful  smell  of  blood,  Young  and  I  promptly 
were  pushed  forward  and  ordered  to  perform  this  piece 
of  work  that  even  the  bravest  of  them  shrunk  from 
undertaking. 


3*74  THE    AZTEC  TKEAStTKE-HOTJSE. 

However,  there  was  no  real  peril  in  it,  for  El  Sabio 
was  so  weak  that  he  could  not  even  stand,  and  still 
less  was  he  strong  enough  to  kick  anybody.  Lifting 
him  in  this  dull,  limp  state,  and  carrying  him  up  the 
steep  steps,  was  heavy  work  for  us,  wounded  and  weary 
as  we  were ;  but  with  Pablo's  help  we  managed  it, 
and  so  got  him  up  from  the  depths  of  the  amphitheatre 
to  its  windward  side — where  a  fresh  sweet  breeze  that 
was  blowing,  and  some  water  that  a  soldier  brought 
when  Pablo  called  for  it,  in  a  little  while  put  new  life 
into  him.  Why  the  ass  was  not  made  to  pay  the  pen 
alty  of  his  sins,  by  being  there  and  then  killed,  at  first 
was  a  good  deal  of  a  puzzle  to  me;  but  presently,  from 
the  talk  that  went  on  about  us  while  Pablo  ministered 
to  him,  and  while  the  wounded  lying  around  the  altar 
were  being  cared  for,  and  the  dead  borne  away,  I  gath 
ered  that  no  one  dared  to  kill  him  for  fear  of  being 
himself  possessed  by  the  devil  that  needs  must  enter 
another  body  upon  being  thus  set  free.  And  as  this 
seemed  to  be  a  view  of  the  case  that  was  worth  en 
couraging,  I  very  gravely  told  one  of  the  priests  that  I 
myself  had  seen  a  man  all  in  an  instant  go  raving  mad 
upon  slaying  one  of  these  creatures  and  so  letting  the 
devil  loose  from  him.  As  this  story  was  circulated 
among  the  crowd  I  was  glad  to  perceive  that  the  dread 
of  El  Sabio  obviously  greatly  increased. 

As  a  result  of  the  untoward  outbreak  that  had  oc 
curred,  no  attempt  was  made  to  complete  the  cere 
monial  of  triumph.  Indeed,  the  victory  now  lay  so 
decidedly  with  El  Sabio  that  there  was  but  little  to 
triumph  over.  Therefore  we  presently  were  herded 


IN    THE    AZTEC   TEEASURE-HOUSE.  375 

together  by  a  party  of  soldiers — who  took  good  care 
that  Pablo  should  lead  the  ass,  and  that  Young  and  I 
should  walk  directly  behind  him  as  a  protection  against 
any  further  uplifting  of  his  heels — and  so  we  all  were 
marched  once  more  into  the  temple.  This  time  we  did 
not  stop  in  front  of  the  great  idol,  but  went  on  beyond 
it  towards  a  portal  in  the  rear  of  the  building  that 
opened  on  an  inner  court ;  on  the  farther  side  of  which 
court,  as  we  knew  from  the  description  of  the  place 
that  Tizoc  had  given  us,  was  the  Treasure-house,  in 
which  was  stored  not  only  the  treasure  placed  there  in 
long  past  ages  by  King  Chaltzantzin,  but  also  the 
treasure  belonging  to  the  State  and  to  the  temple  that 
had  been  accumulated  in  later  times. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  court-yard,  where  the  way 
was  closed  by  a  metal  grating  over  which  a  heavy  cur 
tain  hung,  the  soldiers  formally  relinquished  us  into 
the  charge  of  a  company  of  priests ;  and  then  the  cur 
tain  was  drawn  aside  and  the  grating  was  raised,  and 
we  passed  out  into  the  bright  sunlight — and  saw  close 
before  us  the  place  which  for  so  long  a  time  had  so 
largely  filled  our  thoughts.  It  was  a  building  of  no 
great  size,  being  but  a  single  story  high,  and  was 
dwarfed  by  the  vastly  stupendous  cliffs  which  so  far 
overtopped  it  that  they  seemed  to  extend  upward  to 
the  very  sky ;  but  it  was  most  massively  constructed, 
and  the  actual  available  space  within  it  was  far  greater 
than  was  indicated  by  the  relatively  small  dimensions 
of  its  exterior  walls.  When  we  entered  the  building, 
through  a  narrow  opening  protected  by  a  metal  grat 
ing,  the  chamber  into  which  we  came  was  of  so  con- 


376  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

siderable  a  size  that  a  part  of  it,  we  perceived,  must 
extend  actually  into  the  cliff;  and  that  the  work  of 
quarrying  out  the  living  rock  had  been  carried  still 
farther  was  shown  by  an  opening  at  its  rear  end  that 
evidently  gave  access  to  some  hollow  depth  beyond. 

It  was  towards  this  inner  recess  that  our  guards  led 
us.  Here  another  grating  was  raised  that  we  might 
pass,  and  we  went  onward  through  a  narrow  passage 
cut  in  the  rock,  along  the  sides  of  which  were  many 
openings  giving  access  to  small  cell-like  rooms.  Nor 
was  this  place,  as  we  had  expected  to  find  it,  wholly 
dark;  for  narrow  slits  had  been  cut  through  the  rock 
out  to  the  face  of  the  cliff,  through  which  came  so 
much  light  that  we  could  see  about  us  very  well.  And 
but  for  that  blessed  light,  faint  though  it  was,  I  doubt 
not  that  we  should  have  gone  mad  there;  and  even 
with  the  light  to  cheer  and  to  comfort  us  I  felt  a 
black  despair  settling  down  upon  me  at  the  thought 
of  being  thus  imprisoned  within  the  very  bowels  of 
the  mountain,  with  no  possibility  of  other  release  than 
being  taken  thence  to  die. 

At  the  extreme  end  of  the  passage  the  rock  had 
been  hollowed  away  smoothly  and  carefully  so  as  to 
form  a  chamber  nearly  thirty  feet  square  and  at  least 
twenty  feet  high,  whereof  all  the  walls  were  covered 
with  plates  of  gold  which  overlapped  each  other  in  the 
manner  of  fishes'  scales;  and  advantage  had  been  taken 
of  some  wide  crevice  or  deep  depression  in  the  cliff 
above  to  open  in  the  roof  of  this  chamber  a  small  aper 
ture,  whence  a  pale  light  entered  in  long  fine  rays 
which  gleamed  through  the  shadows,  and  gleamed 


IN   THE    AZTEC   TREASUBE-HOTJSE.  377 

again  more  faintly  in  reflections  from  the  golden  walls. 
In  this  oratory — for  such  it  evidently  was  —  stood  a 
statue,  smaller  than  that  in  the  temple  yet  still  more 
magnificently  arrayed,  of  the  god  Huitzilopochtli ;  be 
fore  which  odious  image  we  were  thrown  upon  our 
faces  by  our  guards.  When  this  ceremony  was  ended 
we  were  led  forth  once  more  into  the  passage,  and  so 
into  two  of  the  little  cells  which  had  been  meagrely 
prepared  for  us  by  tossing  into  each  of  them  a  bundle 
of  mats ;  and  there  our  guards  left  us  to  shift  for  our 
selves — shutting  the  grating  behind  them  with  a  sharp 
ringing  of  metal  on  stone  that  echoed  dismally  through 
the  rock-hewn  chambers  wherein  we  were  held  fast. 

For  a  while  we  stood  in  melancholy  silence  about 
the  stretcher  on  which  poor  Rayburn  lay ;  and  very 
pale  and  worn  he  looked  after  his  great  loss  of  blood 
and  heavy  fatigue  and  the  pain  and  excitement  of  the 
last  few  hours.  Pablo  had  taken  up  his  quarters  with 
El  Sabio  in  a  cell  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  passage — 
for  within  the  limits  of  our  prison  we  were  left  to  ar 
range  ourselves  as  we  pleased — and  we  could  hear  him 
talking  to  the  ass  in  a  fashion  that  at  any  other  time 
we  should  have  laughed  at;  for  by  turns  he  upbraided 
him  for  his  rash  acts,  and  complimented  him  upon  his 
bravery,  and  expressed  dread  of  the  punishment  that 
might  be  visited  upon  him,  and  told  him  of  his  very 
tender  love — all  of  which,  so  far  as  we  could  judge,  El 
Sabio  took  in  equally  good  part. 

"  There  ain't  no  good  in  standin'  'round  here  doin' 
nothin',"  Young  said,  at  last.  "This  don't  look  like 
much  of  a  place  t'  break  out  of,  but  we  may  as  well  see 


378  THE    AZTEC    TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

how  things  are,  anyway.  Th'  Padre  'd  better  take  a 
squint  at  Rayburn's  busted  leg  an'  set  th'  bandages 
straight ;  an'  while  he's  attendin'  t'  that,  me  an'  you, 
Professor,  can  do  a  little  prospectin'.  This  is  th' 
Treasure-house,  for  sure,  an'  it'll  be  some  satisfaction 
t'  see  what  it  amounts  to.  I'll  bet  a  hat  there  ain't 
anything  worth  havin'  in  th'  whole  place,  after  all." 

I  was  glad  enough  to  have  any  occupation  that 
would  change  even  a  little  the  sad  current  of  my 
thoughts,  and  I  therefore  very  willingly  acted  on 
Young's  suggestion — after  first  making  sure  that  Fray 
Antonio  had  no  need  of  help  in  his  work  of  dressing 
Rayburn's  wound — and  together  we  set  about  this  cu 
rious  exploration ;  that  had  in  it  a  strong  charm  for  me, 
notwithstanding  my  heavy  sorrow,  because  of  the  pos 
sibility  that  it  opened  of  finding  curious  traces  of  a 
new  community  so  far  advanced  in  civilization  as  was 
that  which  the  King  Chaltzantzin  had  brought  with 
him  into  this  valley  a  thousand  years  ago.  Here,  un 
questionably,  was  the  oldest  deposit  of  the  belongings 
of  any  of  the  primitive  dwellers  upon  the  American 
continent;  and  I  trembled  a  little  with  excitement  at 
the  thought  of  what  archaeological  treasures  I  here 
might  find — and  then  I  heaved  suddenly  a  long  sigh  as 
I  remembered  how  useless  in  my  present  case  would 
be  even  the  most  brilliant  of  discoveries. 

As  for  Young's  bet  of  a  hat  that  there  was  no  treas 
ure  here  worth  having,  he  would  have  lost  it,  had  it 
been  accepted,  at  the  very  first  of  the  rooms  which  we 
examined;  for  the  whole  of  this  room,  a  cube  of  about 
ten  feet,  was  packed  full  of  bars  of  hardened  gold  from 


IN   THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE.  379 

the  mine  at  Huitzilan.  And  so  was  the  next  room, 
and  the  next,  until  we  had  found  five  rooms  thus  filled. 
But  all  the  remaining  rooms  were  entirely  empty,  and 
of  the  treasure  set  aside  in  long  past  ages  by  King 
Chaltzantzin  there  was  no  sign.  Yet  here,  truly,  was 
stored  wealth  the  like  of  which  the  richest  monarch  in 
the  world  could  not  match  for  greatness;  and  as  Young 
beheld  before  him  such  enormous  riches  his  face  grew 
ruddy,  an  eager  light  came  into  his  eyes,  the  muscles 
of  his  throat  worked  convulsively,  and  his  breathing 
was  labored  and  short — until  I  demolished  all  his  fine 
fancies  at  a  blow  by  saying  :  "  Much  good  this  treasure 
is  to  us,  when  there  isn't  a  ghost  of  a  chance  that  ei 
ther  of  us  ever  will  get  out  of  this  valley  alive!"  As 
I  uttered  these  bitter  words  his  look  of  animation  left 
him,  and  for  some  moments  he  was  silent ;  and  when 
at  last  he  spoke,  it  was  in  a  tone  of  calm  though  mel 
ancholy  conviction,  and  with  a  most  dispassionate  air. 

"  I  shall  be  obliged  t'  you,  Professor,  really  obliged 
t'  you,"  he  said,  "if  you'll  just  kick  me  for  a  blasted 
fool.  Ever  since  that  night  in  Morelia  when  you  told 
me  an'  Rayburn  about  this  treasure  I've  regularly  had 
it  on  my  brain.  Through  all  these  months  I've  been 
thinkin'  about  it  when  I  was  awake  an'  dreamin'  about 
it  when  I  was  asleep.  An'  it's  true  for  a  fact,  Pro 
fessor,  that  never  until  this  blessed  minute,  when  we've 
really  struck  it,  has  th'  notion  come  into  my  fool  head 
that  when  we  did  ketch  up  with  it  the  folks  it  rightly 
b'longed  to  might  want  t'  keep  it  for  theirselves!  Yes, 
just  kick  me,  please.  Just  kick  me  for  a  forlorn,  mis- 
'rable,  blasted  fool!" 


380  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

I  was  not  disposed  to  laugh  at  Young's  words;  rath 
er  was  I  disposed  to  weep  over  them.  For  they  brought 
freshly  and  strongly  to  my  mind  the  fact  that  I  was 
responsible  for  alluring  him,  by  the  hope  of  acquiring 
great  riches  quickly,  into  this  accursed  valley,  where 
in  a  little  while  he  would  be  most  barbarously  done  to 
death.  And  I  knew  too  that  I  was  responsible  for  the 
like  fate  that  must  overtake  Rayburn,  and  that  in  re 
gard  to  Pablo  my  guilt  was  greatest  of  all.  It  was  a 
comfort  to  me,  truly,  that  not  one  of  these  ever  by  look 
or  word  reproached  me  for  thus  so  wofully  misleading 
them;  and  yet,  in  a  certain  way,  their  very  forbearance 
but  added  to  my  pain. 

Therefore  was  I  a  little  gladdened,  when  we  returned 
again  to  the  others,  to  find  that  Fray  Antonio  was 
speaking  to  Rayburn,  with  a  grave,  calm  hopefulness, 
of  those  spiritual  realities  which  are  higher  and  better 
than  material  realities,  and  without  steadfast  trust  in 
which,  most  of  us,  in  the  course  of  this  sorrowful  thing 
that  we  call  life,  assuredly  would  go  mad  in  sheer  de 
spair.  And  listening  to  this  comforting  discourse, 
which  was  not  checked  by  our  return,  did  much  to 
strengthen  me  to  bear  my  heavy  load  of  vain  regret. 
Presently  Fray  Antonio  shifted  his  ground — for  he 
had  the  wisdom  to  speak  but  shortly  on  these  grave 
topics,  yet  using  always  pregnant  words  which  sank 
down  into  men's  hearts  and  germinated  there — and 
told  us  of  what  had  befallen  him  since  he  had  stolen 
away  from  us  that  night  in  Huitzilan. 

In  truth,  he  had  but  little  to  tell,  for  his  adventures 
had  been  of  a  very  simple  kind.  Upon  his  arrival  in 


IN  THE   AZTEC   TBEASURE-HOTJSE.  381 

the  canoe  at  the  water-gate  he  had  been  at  once  recog 
nized  and  admitted,  and  had  been  carried  directly  to 
the  building  in  which,  on  our  first  coming  into  the  city, 
we  all  had  been  confined.  And  there  he  had  been  im 
prisoned  until  he  was  led  up  to  the  temple  to  take  part 
in  the  triumph  that  El  Sabio's  violence  so  seriously  had 
marred,  and  so  once  more  was  in  our  company.  Of  the 
Priest  Captain  he  had  seen  nothing  at  all;  nor  had  any 
answer  come  back  to  him  from  that  dignitary  to  his 
urgent  plea  that,  inasmuch  as  he  had  thus  surrendered 
himself,  his  companions  —  that  is,  ourselves — should 
be  suffered  to  leave  the  valley  in  peace ;  which  silence 
on  the  part  of  the  Priest  Captain  was  not  surprising, 
however,  in  view  of  the  brave  defiance  in  words  sent 
by  the  Tlahuicas,  who  afterwards  were  such  cowards 
in  deeds. 

In  fact,  during  the  brief  time  of  his  imprisonment 
Fray  Antonio  had  not  spoken  to  a  soul  save  the  man 
who  brought  him  drink  and  food.  Yet  his  talk  with 
this  man,  scant  though  it  had  been,  had  filled  him  with 
the  hope  that,  could  he  only  hold  free  converse  with 
the  people  at  large,  even  as  he  had  done  at  Huitzilan, 
the  purpose  that  he  had  in  mind  in  coming  into  the 
valley  would  be  fulfilled.  Although  a  priest  of  the 
temple,  his  jailer  had  listened  with  a  most  earnest  and 
hearty  attention  to  the  expounding  of  Christian  doc 
trine  that  was  opened  to  him,  and  had  shown  a  very 
cheering  willingness  to  recognize  the  shortcomings  of 
his  own  idolatrous  belief  as  compared  with  the  prin 
ciples  of  this  purer  and  nobler  faith.  And  he  had  told 
Fray  Antonio  that  many  of  bis  companions  in  the  serv- 


382  THE    AZTEC   TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

ice  of  the  temple,  having  heard  somewhat  of  the  new 
creed  from  those  who  had  come  up  from  Huitzilan, 
were  eager  to  know  more  concerning  it;  so  that  it 
would  seem,  Fray  Antonio  declared,  as  though  there 
were  a  harvest  there  ready  to  be  reaped  to  Christian 
ity  by  his  hand.  The  case  was  such,  he  thought,  that 
could  he  but  speak  publicly  to  the  multitude,  and  es 
pecially  could  there  but  be  vouchsafed  from  Heaven 
some  sign  by  which  the  verity  of  his  words  might  be 
established,  he  yet  would  win  to  the  glorious  Christian 
faith  this  whole  community,  that,  through  no  fault  of 
its  own,  until  that  time  had  remained  lost  in  heathen 
sin. 

Rayburn  and  I  exchanged  glances  as  Fray  Antonio 
spoke  of  aid  being  given  him  in  his  work  by  a  sign 
from  Heaven,  for  to  our  notions  the  time  of  miracles 
was  a  long  while  past.  But  Fray  Antonio,  as  we  knew 
(for  once  or  twice  we  three  had  spoken  together  of 
this  matter),  did  not  at  all  hold  with  us  in  believing 
that  miracle-working  had  come  to  an  end ;  and  indeed 
his  faith  was  entirely  logical;  for,  as  he  himself  put 
it,  those  who  believed  that  miracles  ever  had  been 
wrought  for  the  advancement  of  Christianity  could  not 
reasonably  draw  a  line  at  any  year  since  the  Christian 
Church  was  founded,  and  say  that  in  that  year  mir 
acles  ceased  to  be.  In  this  matter,  as  in  many  others, 
the  resemblance  between  Fray  Antonio  and  the  founder 
of  his  Order,  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi,  was  very  strong. 

Pablo's  experience  as  a  prisoner  had  been  of  a  far 

more  trying  sort;  for  the  priests  had  sought  earnestly, 

ibe  said,  by  most  stringent  meanp,  to  pervert  him  from 


IN  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE.  383 

Christianity  to  their  own  faith.  When  we  had  been 
so  rudely  separated  that  day,  after  our  interview  with 
the  Priest  Captain,  he,  and  El  Sabio  with  him,  had  been 
hurried  up  the  stairs  to  the  temple,  and  thence  to  the 
Treasure-house ;  and  there,  though  not  in  the  part  of 
it  in  which  we  then  were,  he  had  been  ever  since  con 
fined.  Strong  measures  certainly  had  been  taken  to 
make  a  heathen  of  him.  He  had  been  starved  for  a 
while,  and  he  had  been  deprived  of  water,  and  he  had 
been  cruelly  scourged,  and  very  harrowing  present 
ments  had  been  made  to  him  of  the  death  that  he  must 
die  should  he  much  longer  refuse  to  yield.  That  the 
lad  had  remained  firm  in  his  faith,  he  told  us,  sobbing 
a  little  at  memory  of  his  hardships,  was  because  of  the 
sorrow  that  he  knew  his  yielding  would  bring  upon 
Fray  Antonio  and  upon  me ;  which  certainly  was  not 
the  reason  that  Fray  Antonio  most  would  have  ap 
proved,  but  it  did  not  in  the  least  detract  from  the 
steady  courage  that  he  had  shown  in  holding  out  firm 
ly  under  pressure  that  would  have  made  many  a  man 
succumb.  In  all  the  time  that  so  many  cruelties  had 
been  practised  upon  him,  only  one  man  had  shown  him 
kindness — an  old  man,  who  seemed  to  be  in  charge  of 
the  archives  that  the  Treasure-house  contained,  who 
twice  had  risked  his  own  life  by  secretly  giving  him 
water  and  food.  But  he  never  had  been  separated  from 
El  Sabio,  Pablo  said  joyfully,  in  conclusion,  nor  had  his 
mouth-organ  been  taken  away  from  him ;  and  these 
blessings  had  done  much  to  lessen  the  misery  that  he 
was  compelled  to  bear. 

When,  in  our  turn,  Ray  burn  and  Young  and  T  had 


884  THE    AZTEC    TKEASURE-HOUSE. 

told  of  the  far  more  stirring  adventures  that  we  had 
passed  through,  and  of  our  high  hopes  seemingly  so 
well  founded  that  had  suffered  so  dismal  a  downfall, 
we  all  of  us  wisely  refrained  from  speculating  at  all 
upon  the  future  ;  instead  of  which  profitless  and  pain 
ful  topic  we  strove  to  speak  cheerfully  of  indifferent 
matters ;  and  this  we  did  not  only  that  we  might  the 
better  keep  our  hearts  up,  but  that  we  might  not  ex 
cite  Rayburn,  who  already  was  in  a  dangerously  fever 
ish  condition  by  reason  of  his  wound.  But,  though  we 
spoke  not  of  it,  we  none  of  us  doubted  what  our  fate 
would  be ;  nor  did  we  imagine  that  the  death  that 
surely  awaited  us  would  be  long  delayed. 

It  was  a  source  of  wonder  to  us,  therefore,  that  day 
after  day  went  by  without  bringing  the  end  that  we 
so  confidently  expected.  From  the  man  who  brought 
us  our  food  we  could  learn  nothing  ;  but  this  was 
not  from  ill-will  on  his  part,  but  because  he  himself 
knew  nothing  of  the  Priest  Captain's  plans.  This 
man,  though  a  priest,  was  not  unkindly  disposed  tow 
ards  us,  and  he  even  listened  to  the  words  which  Fray 
Antonio  addressed  to  him  touching  Christian  doctrine; 
but  while  he  listened — being  made  of  a  sterner  stuff 
than  the  priest  who  previously  had  been  Fray  Anto 
nio's  jailer — he  gave  no  sign  of  assent.  The  only  other 
person  whom  we  had  a  chance  to  speak  with,  and  this 
but  rarely,  was  the  old  man  who  had  shown  kindness 
to  Pablo,  the  guardian  of  the  archives — who,  by  right 
of  his  official  position,  had  free  access  to  that  portion 
of  the  Treasure-house  from  which  the  second  grating 
cut  us  off.  At  the  grating  he  and  I  had  some  very 


IN   THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE.  385 

interesting  conversations  together  upon  archaeological 
matters ;  but  Fray  Antonio  took  but  little  interest  in 
him  when  he  found  how  slight  was  the  impression 
made  upon  him  by  the  most  serious  of  doctrinal  talk. 
In  truth,  this  old  fellow — wherefore  my  own  heart 
warmed  to  him — was  wholly  given  to  the  study  of  an 
tiquities;  and  so  full  was  his  mind  of  this  delightful 
subject  that  there  was  no  room  left  in  it  for  thoughts 
about  religions  of  any  sort.  He  was  entirely  catholic 
in  this  matter,  for  his  unconcern  respecting  Christian 
ity  was  neither  more  marked  nor  less  marked  than  was 
his  unconcern  toward  his  own  avowed  faith. 

Many  curious  things  this  old  man  told  me  touching 
the  history  of  his  people  ;  and  he  showed  me,  also,  the 
manner  in  which  their  annals  were  kept — an  obvious 
evolution  from  the  picture-writing  of  the  Aztecs  that 
had  advanced  to  a  stage  closely  resembling  the  cross 
between  ideaographs  and  an  alphabet  that  the  Coreans 
use — all  of  which  I  have  dealt  with  exhaustively  in 
my  larger  work.  And  he  told  me  also,  with  a  wonder 
that  did  not  seem  uncalled  for,  that  several  times  in 
each  year  the  Priest  Captain  retired  to  the  very  place 
in  which  we  then  were  imprisoned,  and  remained  there 
sometimes  for  as  much  as  a  whole  month  cut  off  from 
his  people,  without  food  or  drink,  while  he  communed 
with  the  gods. 

But  what  seemed  strange  to  me,  and  also  bitterly 
disheartening,  was  that  this  old  man,  notwithstanding 
the  office  that  he  held  and  his  hungry  love  for  ancient 
things,  could  tell  me  nothing  of  the  treasure  that  King 
Chaltzantzin  had  stored  away.  He  knew  of  this  treas- 
25 


386  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

lire,  he  said,  only  as  a  vague  tradition;  and  although, 
at  one  time  or  another,  he  had  explored  every  chamber 
in  the  Treasure-house,  he  never  had  found  of  this  an 
cient  deposit  the  smallest  trace  ;  for  which  excellent 
reason  he  had  concluded  that  if  ever  there  had  been 
such  a  treasure  it  long  since  had  been  dispersed.  No 
doubt — considering  how  useless  to  me,  beyond  the  mere 
gratification  of  my  own  curiosity,  would  have  been  its 
discovery — my  regret  at  this  abrupt  ending  of  my  hopes 
was  most  unreasonable ;  but  I  confess  that,  so  far  as  I 
myself  was  concerned,  the  very  keenest  pang  of  sorrow 
that  I  suffered  through  all  that  sorrowful  time  was 
when  I  thus  learned  that  the  archaeological  search  that 
I  had  entered  upon  so  hopefully,  and  that  I  had  so 
laboriously  prosecuted,  had  been  but  a  fool's  errand 
from  first  to  last. 


XXXIV. 

A    MARTYRDOM. 

HEAVILY  and  wearily  the  days  dragged  on  as  we  lay 
in  that  dismal  prison  hewn  from  the  mountain's  heart; 
and  as  they  slowly  vanished  there  stole  upon  us  a  new 
sorrow,  that  was  deeper  and  more  searching  than  the 
doubting  dread  by  which  we  were  beset  touching  the 
cruel  ending  of  our  lives. 

Rayburn's  wound — a  very  savage  cut  in  the  thigh, 
made  by  the  jagged  edge  of  a  maccahuitl — from  the 
first  had  been  a  dangerous  one;  and  the  danger  had 


A   MARTYRDOM.  387 

been  aggravated  by  inflammation  that  had  follow 
ed  that  long,  hot  journey  across  the  lake,  and  by  the 
rough  handling  that  his  bearers  had  given  him,  and  by 
the  excitement  that  had  attended  El  Sabio's  fiery  out 
burst  beside  the  sacrificial  stone.  Even  Fray  Antonio's 
skill  in  surgery,  without  which  he  assuredly  would  have 
quickly  died,  only  barely  sufficed  to  keep  him  alive 
while  the  fever  was  upon  him;  and  when  at  last  the 
fever  left  him,  the  little  strength  remaining  to  him 
grew  less  with  every  passing  day.  It  was  pathetic 
to  see  this  man,  who  until  then  had  been  the  very  em 
bodiment  of  rugged  vigor,  so  worn  with  suffering  that 
without  Fray  Antonio's  tender  assistance  he  scarce 
could  move;  and  still  more  pathetic  was  it  to  hear  him 
moaning  in  his  pain,  and  uttering  heart-sick  longings 
for  sunlight  and  fresh  air,  for  need  of  which,  Fray  An 
tonio  affirmed,  he  was  dying  there  quite  as  much  as  be 
cause  of  his  wound.  Indeed,  the  chill  chamber  in  the 
rock  where  he  was  lying  was  no  fit  place  even  for  a  well 
man  at  that  time  to  dwell  in  ;  for  the  season  of  rains 
had  come,  and  all  the  nights  were  cold  and  damp,  while 
through  the  afternoons  and  in  the  night-time,  during 
which  portions  of  the  day  the  rain  fell  in  torrents,  the 
whole  mountain  was  shaken  by  the  tremendous  peals 
of  thunder  which  roared  and  crashed  about  its  crest. 

It  was  after  one  of  poor  Rayburn's  pitiable  outbreaks 
of  weak  moaning  that  Young  led  me  away  into  the 
oratory,  with  the  evident  intention  of  delivering  him 
self  of  some  matter  that  pressed  heavily  upon  his  mind. 

"See  here,  Professor,  I  just  ca?i')t  stand  this  any 
longer,"  he  sa.id,  when  we  were  alone.  "  I'm  goin'  ^ 


388  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

send  word  t'  th'  Priest  Captain  t'  ask  him  if  finishin' 
me  off  in  short  order  won't  make  him  willin'  t'  let  Ray- 
burn  out  o'  this  damp  hole  into  some  place  where  he 
can  be  comfortable,  an*  where  in  th'  mornin's  he  can 
get  some  sun  an'  air.  Rayburn  won't  mind  bein'  square 
ly  killed  after  he's  healthy  again.  He  ain't  th'  kind  t' 
be  afraid  of  anything  when  he's  feelin'  all  right.  But 
it's  just  infernal  cruelty  t'  kill  him  this  way — it  wouldn't 
be  fair  to  a  dog.  So  I'm  goin'  t'  try  what  I  can  do.  It's 
nothin'  much  t'  do,  any  way — only  runnin'  a  little  ahead 
o'  th'  schedule,  that's  all." 

Oddly  enough,  something  of  a  like  purpose  had  been 
for  some  time  past  slowly  forming  in  my  own  mind 
— though  what  I  intended  to  do  would  have,  I  hoped, 
still  better  consequences;  for  my  notion  was  to  urge 
that  for  the  pleasure  that  could  be  had  from  killing 
me,  my  companions  should  be  given  such  freedom  as 
was  to  be  found  in  that  rock-bound  region  beyond  the 
Barred  Pass.  Therefore,  when  Young  thus  brought  up 
the  matter  openly  between  us,  I  told  him  of  my  own 
intention;  and  with  some  emphasis  I  advised  him  that 
inasmuch  as  I  first  had  thought  of  it,  to  me  belonged 
the  right  to  carry  this  project  into  execution;  and  es 
pecially  was  this  right  mine,  I  urged,  because  but  for 
me  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  rest  of  us — saving  only, 
possibly,  Fray  Antonio — ever  would  have  come  into 
that  valley  at  all.  Thereupon  we  fell  to  wrangling 
somewhat  hotly;  for  Young  was  a  most  pig-headed 
man  when  his  mind  was  set  upon  anything,  and  his 
notions  of  argument  even  at  the  best  of  times  were  of 
the  loosest  kind, 


A   MARTYRDOM.  389 

How  our  talk  might  have  ended  I  cannot  tell,  for 
each  of  us  most  resolutely  was  determined  to  have  his 
own  way;  but  it  actually  did  end  because  of  an  inter 
ruption  by  which  we  presently  learned  that  a  will  finer 
and  stronger  than  either  of  ours  had  been  acting,  while 
we  had  been  only  thinking,  in  a  fashion  that  cut  the 
ground  completely  from  under  us  both.  And  all  that 
followed  within  the  next  hour  or  two  came  upon  us 
with  so  startling  a  suddenness  that  it  seemed  less  like 
reality  than  like  a  terrible  dream. 

The  first  intimation  that  we  had  that  anything  was 
upon  us  out  of  the  common  run  of  our  drearily  dull 
prison  life  was  hearing  a  creaking  noise  that  we  knew 
must  be  caused  by  the  raising  of  the  grating  that  shut 
us  in;  and  as  we  hurried  out  from  the  oratory  into 
the  long  passage-way  we  saw  a  company  of  soldiers 
coming  towards  us,  at  the  head  of  which  was  a  priest. 
Fray  Antonio  and  Pablo,  startled  as  we  had  been  by 
the  sound  caused  by  the  opening  of  the  grating  and 
the  tramp  of  feet,  also  had  come  out  into  the  passage; 
but  while  Pablo  evidently  was  wondering,  even  as  we 
were  wondering,  what  might  be  the  purpose  that  these 
men  had  come  to  execute,  the  look  upon  the  monk's 
face  was  of  expectation  rather  than  of  surprise.  And 
without  waiting  for  the  others  to  speak,  he  asked,  eager 
ly  :  "  Is  it  to  be  ?" 

"  It  is  to  be,"  the  priest  answered ;  and  it  seemed  to 
me  that  there  was  sorrow  in  the  look  that  went  with  his 
words,  and  sorrow  also  in  the  tone  of  his  voice;  and 
that  this  man  truly  was  sorrowful  because  of  the  mes 
sage  that  he  brought  I  doubt  not,  for  he  was  the  priest 


390  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

who  had  been  jailer  to  Fray  Antonio,  and  whose  mind 
had  seemed  so  open  to  receive  the  doctrine  that  Fray 
Antonio  taught. 

But  there  was  only  joy  in  the  bearing  of  the  monk 
as  his  question  thus  was  answered;  and  there  was  a 
ringing  gladness  in  his  voice  as  he  replied — being  most 
careful  first  to  draw  us  away  from  the  room  in  which 
Rayburn  was  lying — to  our  looks  of  wondering  inquiry. 
"  The  Priest  Captain  has  granted  my  request,"  he  said, 
and  added  quickly:  "Do  not  sorrow  for  me,  my  friends. 
Dying  for  the  Faith  is  the  most  glorious  ending  that 
life  can  have;  and  happier  still  is  he  to  whom,  with  this 
rare  privilege,  is  given  also  that  of  dying  that  those 
whom  he  loves  may  yet  be  saved  alive.  The  Priest 
Captain  has  promised  that  when  I  have  paid  this  little 
debt  of  life  you  whom  I  love  so  greatly  shall  go  free — " 

"  Don't  you  believe  him  !  He's  a  blasted  liar  from  the 
word  go  !"  Young  struck  in,  clean  forgetting,  in  the  pas 
sionate  sorrow  that  was  rising  in  his  breast,  that  what 
Fray  Antonio  so  plainly  had  in  mind  to  do  he  himself 
had  been  most  strongly  bent  upon  doing  but  a  moment 
before.  But  Young  spoke  in  English,  and  without  heed 
ing  him  Fray  Antonio  went  on :  "  You  two,  and  the 
boy,  surely  will  live ;  and  perhaps  life  may  be  given 
also  to  our  friend.  He  is  in  God's  hands.  And  then, 
until—" 

But  further  speech  was  not  permitted  to  him.  Two 
soldiers  stepped  forward  and  grasped  his  arms,  yet  first 
suffering  him  for  a  moment  to  clasp  hands  with  us, 
and  so  led  him  towards  the  open  grating ;  and  behind 
him  Young  and  I  and  Pablo  were  conducted  in  a  like 


A    MARTYRDOM.  391 

fashion  by  the  guards.  As  we  passed  the  room  in 
which  Rayburn  lay  we  heard  him  moaning  faintly  ; 
and  so  weak  was  he  that  day  that  it  seemed  to  me  a 
very  likely  thing  for  us  to  find  him  dead  there  upon 
our  return — if,  indeed,  we  ever  returned  at  all. 

As  we  passed  out  into  the  inner  court  of  the  temple, 
where  the  sun  shone  joyously — for  the  day  still  was 
young,  and  the  rain-clouds  had  but  begun  to  gather 
about  the  mountain  peaks — we  heard  a  murmur  in  the 
air  like  the  distant  sound  of  bees  buzzing  ;  and  as  we 
entered  the  rear  portal  of  the  temple  this  sound  grew 
louder,  yet  still  was  soft  and  blurred.  In  the  temple, 
Fray  Antonio  was  separated  from  us,  being  led  towards 
the  inner  entrance  of  that  subterranean  passage  which 
opened  into  the  pit  of  the  amphitheatre;  and  as  we 
went  onward  to  the  great  portal  in  the  temple's  front 
we  cast  towards  him  sorrowful  looks,  in  which  all  the 
bitter  pain  that  was  in  our  hearts  was  concentrated, 
but  had  in  answer  from  him,  as  he  walked  with  elate 
bearing  between  his  guards,  only  looks  of  most  joyful 
hope  in  which  was  also  a  very  tender  love. 

The  noise  that  at  first  had  seemed  to  us  like  bees 
buzzing  grew  louder  as  we  advanced,  until,  when  we 
came  out  upon  the  open  space  before  the  temple,  it 
swelled  into  a  mighty  roar.  And  there  the  cause  of 
it  was  plain  to  us ;  for  before  us  lay  the  great  amphi 
theatre  crowded  with  a  seething  multitude,  and  all 
the  thousands  gathered  there  were  uttering  savage 
cries  of  delight  at  thought  of  the  savage  spectacle 
that  now  in  a  few  moments  would  gladden  their  fierce 
hearts.  In  the  midst  of  this  tumult  we  were  hur- 


392  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

ried  into  a  sort  of  balcony,  heavily  built  of  stone,  that 
hung  upon  the  slope  of  the  amphitheatre  ;  just  behind 
and  above  which  was  a  much  larger  balcony  of  richly 
wrought  stone-work  that  was  covered  by  a  canopy  of 
colored  stuffs,  and  that  had  in  its  midst  a  sort  of  throne. 
And  at  sight  of  us  a  great  shout  went  up,  that  in  a 
moment  died  away  into  a  hush  of  silence  as  the  Priest 
Captain,  with  a  company  of  priests  about  him,  enter 
ed  the  balcony  behind  us  and  took  his  seat  upon  the 
throne. 

But  in  another  instant  the  shouting  burst  forth  again 
as  Fray  Antonio  came  out  from  the  passage  that  open 
ed  beneath  us,  and  in  a  moment  was  lifted  bodily  by 
his  guards  and  placed  upon  the  Stone  of  Sacrifice  in 
plain  view  of  all.  I  wondered  as  I  saw  that  only  sol 
diers  accompanied  him,  and  that  there  was  no  sign 
of  the  coming  of  the  priests  by  whom  the  sacrifice 
would  be  made.  But  my  wonder  ceased,  and  the  burn 
ing  pain  that  then  consumed  me  was  a  little  lessened, 
as  there  came  forth  from  the  underground  passage, 
guarded  by  four  soldiers,  a  very  tall,  strong  Indian, 
whose  muscles  stood  out  in  great  knots  upon  his  lithe 
body  and  legs  and  arms,  and  immediately  following 
him  six  others  no  less  powerful — for  then  I  knew  that 
Fray  Antonio  was  not  to  die  the  cruel  and  bloody  death 
of  a  sacrificial  victim,  but  was  to  have,  in  accordance 
with  the  Aztec  custom,  such  chance  of  life  as  was  to  be 
found  in  fighting  these  seven  men  in  turn  and  receiv 
ing  his  freedom  when  he  had  slain  them  all.  Yet  as 
I  looked  at  the  slim  figure  of  the  monk,  and  then  at 
these  burly  giants  ready  to  be  pitted  against  him,  I 


A    MARTYRDOM.  393 

knew  that  but  one  result  could  issue  from  that  unequal 
combat;  and  a  sudden  dizziness  came  upon  me,  and  for 
a  moment  all  around  me  was  dark.  Nor  was  this  mo 
mentary  darkness  wholly  imaginary  ;  for  just  then 
— with  a  low  growl  of  distant  thunder  —  a  fragment 
broke  away  from  the  great  mass  of  black  cloud  that 
hung  upon  the  crest  of  the  cliff  above  us  and  drifted 
sluggishly  across  the  face  of  the  sun. 

When  my  dizziness  had  passed,  and  I  could  again  see 
clearly,  the  warrior  was  standing  upon  the  Stone  of 
Sacrifice — naked  save  for  his  breech-clout,  and  armed 
with  a  round  shield  and  a  maccahuitl  of  hardened 
gold.  The  monk  still  wore  his  flowing  habit,  whence 
the  hood  had  fallen  back,  so  that  his  head  was  bare; 
in  one  hand  he  held  his  crucifix,  and  with  the  other  he 
was  motioning  away  the  sword  and  shield  that  a  sol 
dier  held  out  to  him :  at  sight  of  which  refusal  on  his 
part  to  be  armed  there  was  a  shrill  outcry  among  the 
multitude  that  the  fight  would  not  be  fair;  and  to  this 
sharp  noise  of  strident  voices  there  was  added  a  sol 
emn  undertone  that  came  in  a  low  roll  of  thunder  from 
the  overhanging  cloud. 

As  though  to  still  the  clamor,  the  monk  waved  his 
hand;  and  when  at  this  sign  the  outcries  ceased,  he 
asked — yet  addressing  not  the  Priest  Captain  but  the 
whole  mass  of  people  gathered  there — if  certain  words 
which  he  desired  to  utter  would  be  heard.  And  in  an 
swer  to  him  there  went  up  a  shout  of  assent,  in  which 
was  drowned  completely  (save  that  we,  being  close  be 
neath  him,  heard  it)  the  Priest  Captain's  order  that 
the  fight  should  begin.  And  it  struck  me  that  the 


394  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Priest  Captain  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  critical  sit 
uation  with  which  he  then  was  dealing,  and  his  dread  of 
the  forces  which  an  ill-timed  word  in  opposition  to  the 
will  of  the  multitude  might  let  loose  against  him,  by 
refraining  from  repeating  his  order  when  silence  came 
again,  and  all  the  thousands  gathered  there  leaned  for 
ward  eagerly  to  hearken  to  what  Fray  Antonio  would 
say. 

And  what  he  did  say  was  the  most  moving  and  the 
most  exalted  deliverance  that  ever  came  forth  from 
mortal  man.  To  that  great  multitude  he  preached 
there  shortly,  but  with  an  eloquence  that  I  doubt  not 
was  born  directly  of  heavenly  inspiration,  a  sermon  so 
searching,  so  full  of  God's  great  love  and  tenderness, 
and  so  full  also  of  the  majesty  of  His  law  and  of  the 
long-suffering  of  His  mercy  and  loving-kindness,  that 
every  word  of  it  falling  from  his  lips  seemed  to  burn 
into  the  depths  of  all  those  heathen  hearts.  My  own 
heart  was  thrilled  and  shaken  as  it  never  had  been 
stirred  before,  and  the  boy  Pablo  wept  as  he  listened ; 
and  even  Young,  to  whom  the  spoken  words  had  no 
meaning,  grew  pale,  and  sweat  gathered  upon  his  fore 
head  as  his  soul  was  moved  within  him  by  the  infinite 
ly  beseeching  tenderness  of  Fray  Antonio's  voice  :  for 
most  wonderfully  did  his  voice  rise  and  fall  in  its  ca- 
denced  sweetness  and  entreaty,  and  there  was  a  strange 
ly  vibrant  quality  in  his  tones  that  matched  the  tenor 
of  his  words,  and  so  held  all  that  vast  multitude  spell 
bound. 

As  he  spoke  on,  a  hush  fell  upon  them  who  listen 
ed  j  and  then  through  the  throng  a  tremor  seemed  to 


A   MARTYRDOM.  395 

run,  but  less  a  sound  of  actual  speech  than  a  subtle 
manifestation  that  in  a  moment  a  great  outburst  of  as 
sent  would  come,  and  I  felt  within  me  that  the  work 
which  Fray  Antonio  had  dared  death  to  accomplish 
already  was  triumphantly  concluded  ;  and  so  waited, 
breathless,  to  hear  this  heathen  host  proclaim  its  glad 
allegiance  to  the  Christian  God. 

But  the  Priest  Captain  also  perceived  how  imminent 
was  the  danger  that  menaced  the  ancient  faith,  and 
dared  to  take  the  one  chance  left  for  saving  it,  and 
that  a  desperate  one,  by  breaking  in  upon  Fray  An 
tonio's  discourse  with  a  ringing  order  that  the  fight 
should  be  no  longer  delayed;  whereat  a  deep  growl  of 
dissent  ran  through  the  crowd,  that  was  echoed  in  a 
still  deeper  roar  of  thunder  in  the  dark  sky.  In  truth, 
the  gathering  of  the  storm  in  the  heavens  above  seem 
ed  to  be  wholly  in  keeping  with  the  storm  that  with 
an  equal  celerity  was  gathering  on  the  earth  below. 
There  was  a  heavy  languor,  a  dense  stillness  in  the  air, 
and  the  cloud  above  us  had  drifted  out  from  the  face 
of  the  cliff  so  far  that  it  now  hung  over  all  the  city 
like  a  vast  black  canopy.  From  this  sombre  mass,  that 
buried  all  beneath  it  in  gloomy  shadows,  flashes  of 
lightning  shot  forth  that  each  moment  increased  in 
fiery  intensity,  and  the  rolling  roar  of  thunder  each 
moment  grew  louder  and  sharper  in  its  dark  depths. 
Even  as  the  Priest  Captain  spoke  there  came  a  yet 
more  vivid  flash,  and  almost  with  it  a  crashing  peal. 

At  the  word  of  command,  so  vehemently  given,  the 
warrior  faced  about  upon  Fray  Antonio,  and  held  high 
aloft  his  sword ;  but  the  monk,  firmly  standing  there, 


396  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

while  in  his  eyes  shone  so  glorious  a  light  that  it  seem 
ed  as  though  the  wrath  of  outraged  Heaven  blazed 
forth  from  them,  opposed  to  this  earthly  weapon  only 
his  out-stretched  crucifix,  and  thus  confronted  the  death 
that  menaced  him  with  so  splendid  a  bravery  that  for 
an  instant  his  huge  antagonist  was  held  still  by  a  won 
der  that  was  born  half  of  admiration  and  half  of  awe; 
and  in  the  breathless  hush  of  that  supreme  moment 
Fray  Antonio  cried  out,  in  tones  so  clear  and  so  ring 
ing  that  his  words  were  heard  by  all  the  thousands 
gathered  there : 

"  I  call  for  help  upon  the  living  and  the  only  God  !" 
And  even  as  these  words  still  sounded  in  our  ears 
there  shot  forth  from  the  cloud  above  us  a  swift  red 
flash  of  blinding  light,  and  with  this  came  a  crash  of 
thunder  so,  mighty  that  the  cliffs  above  strained  and 
quivered,  and  great  fragments  of  rock  came  hurtling 
down  from  them,  and  a  shivering  trembling  surged 
through  the  whole  mountain,  so  that  we  felt  it  sway 
ing  beneath  our  feet. 

And  as  we  gazed  in  awe,  through  the  gloom  that 
from  all  parts  of  the  heavens  was  gathering  towards 
the  height  whereon  we  were,  we  saw  before  us  God's 
wrath  made  manifest ;  for  the  warrior,  still  holding 
raised  the  metal  sword  that  had  tempted  death  to  him, 
trembled,  reeled  a  little,  swayed  gently  forward,  and 
then,  with  a  sudden  jerk,  swayed  backward  again,  and 
so  fell  lifeless — his  bare  right  arm,  and  all  the  length 
of  his  naked  body  to  his  very  heel  marked  by  a  livid 
streak  of  bloody  purple  that  showed  where  the  thunder 
bolt  had  passed.  For  a  moment  the  monk  also  seemed 


A    MARTYRDOM.  397 

stunned;  and  then,  kneeling  beside  that  lightning-blast 
ed  corpse,  and  holding  his  hands  out-stretched  towards 
heaven,  whence  his  deliverance  had  come,  he  cried  in  a 
clear  strong  voice,  of  which  the  solemn  tones  rang  vi 
brant  through  that  awful  silence :  "  The  Christian  God 
liveth  and  reigneth !  Believe  on  Him  whose  love  and 
whose  mercy  are  not  less  tender  than  is  terrible  His 
transcendent  power !" 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  thrill  of  movement  that 
ran  through  the  multitude  as  these  words  were  spoken. 
I  drew  a  long  breath  of  thankfulness,  for  I  felt  that 
Fray  Antonio  was  saved,  and  that  in  another  instant 
my  ears  would  be  nigh  burst  by  the  thunderous  roar 
of  all  those  thousands — won  to  him  by  his  own  most 
moving  eloquence,  and  by  sight  of  the  miracle  whereby 
his  deliverance  had  been  wrought — that  he  should  be 
set  free. 

And  in  this  instant — in  the  very  moment  that  this 
sigh  escaped  me,  while  yet  the  pause  lasted  before 
that  great  shout  came  —  the  Priest  Captain  sprang 
from  his  seat  above  us  into  the  balcony  where  we 
prisoners  stood  guarded,  on  downward  into  the  arena 
below,  and  thence  upon  the  Stone  of  Sacrifice  —  all 
with  a  demoniac  agility  most  horrible  to  look  upon 
in  one  of  his  withered  age  —  and  there,  with  a  fierce 
thrust  of  a  spear  that  he  had  caught  from  a  soldier's 
hand  in  passing,  he  pierced  Fray  Antonio  between 
the  shoulders  straight  through  the  heart ;  and  the 
monk,  still  grasping  in  his  hands  his  crucifix,  fell  face 
downward  upon  the  Stone  of  Sacrifice,  and  lay  there 
dead! 


398  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

Then  Itzacoatl,  standing  with  one  foot  upon  the 
monk's  dead  body,  and  grasping  still  the  spear  that 
he  had  planted  in  that  noble  heart,  cried  out,  triumph 
antly,  "  Behold  the  victory  and  the  vengeance  of  our 
Aztec  gods !" 

And  the  multitude,  swayed  backward  from  the  very 
threshold  of  the  Christian  faith,  shouted  together  in 
one  mighty  voice,  "  Victory  and  vengeance  for  our 
gods!" 


XXXV. 

THE    TREASURE-CHAMBER. 

CLOSE  in  the  wake  of  that  great  thunder-crash  there 
burst  upon  us  so  mighty  a  flood  of  rain  that  it  seemed 
as  though  the  lightning  had  riven  solid  walls  asunder 
within  the  thick  black  mass  of  overhanging  vapor,  and 
so  had  let  loose  upon  us  the  waters  of  a  lake.  In  a 
moment  the  whole  pit  of  the  amphitheatre  was  awash, 
knee-deep,  and  before  those  who  were  standing  there 
could  flounder  to  the  steps  leading  upward  they  were 
buried  to  their  waists — and  this  although  the  water 
was  pouring  out  through  the  vent  provided  for  it  with 
such  violence  that  we  could  hear  the  rush  and  gurgle 
of  it  above  the  dashing  and  roaring  of  the  falling  rain. 
And  all  the  dark  mass  of  cloud  above  us  was  aflame 
continuously  with  blinding  flashes  of  red  lightning, 
while  a  continuous  crash  of  splitting  peals  of  thunder 
rang  through  the  shattered  air, 


THE    TREASURE-CHAMBER.  399 

Doubtless  this  storm  was  our  salvation.  That  the 
Priest  Captain's  intention,  even  from  the  first,  had  been 
to  kill  us  also,  and  so  make  his  victory  complete,  I  do 
not  for  a  moment  doubt ;  but  he  was  too  shrewd  to 
waste  upon  a  few  terrified  spectators  an  exhibition  that 
would  carry  with  it  a  salutary  demonstration  of  his 
power;  and  with  the  bursting  of  the  flood  upon  us,  the 
crowd  that  filled  the  amphitheatre  had  begun  a  tu 
multuous  flight  to  the  temple ;  going  thither  partly 
for  shelter,  and  partly  being  awe-struck  by  what  had 
passed  before  them  and  by  the  tremendous  fury  of 
the  storm,  that  they  might  find  safety  in  the  abiding- 
place  of  their  gods. 

Therefore,  the  order  was  given  hurriedly  that  we 
should  be  taken  back  to  our  prison ;  in  obedience  to 
which  command  our  guards  led  us  through  the  temple 
— where  they  had  difficulty  in  forcing  a  way  for  us 
through  the  dense  throng  that  had  gathered  within  its 
walls — and  thence  to  the  Treasure-house  beyond  ;  and 
they  were  in  such  haste  to  be  quit  of  us,  that  they  also 
might  seek  safety  in  the  temple,  that  they  scarce  wait 
ed  to  close  the  grating  behind  us  before  they  sped 
away. 

So  overwhelming  was  the  grief  that  had  fallen  upon 
us  that  for  some  moments  we  stood  as  though  stunned 
where  the  guards  had  left  us ;  and,  for  myself,  my  one 
regret  was  that  the  chance  of  the  storm,  by  saving  me 
yet  a  little  while  longer  alive,  had  lost  to  me  the  hap 
piness  of  dying  in  the  same  hour  with  the  friend  whom 
I  had  so  strongly  loved.  I  think  that  this  thought  was 
in  Young's  heart  also,  as  he  stood  there  silent  beside 


400  THE    AZTEC    TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

me,  the  blood  so  drawn  away  from  his  face  that  a  dull 
yellow  pallor  overspread  his  bronzed  skin,  while  his 
breath  came  short  and  hard.  As  for  the  boy  Pablo, 
his  whole  being  was  shattered.  He  sank  down  on  the 
rock  at  our  feet,  and  seemed  to  be  moaning  his  very 
life  out  in  long  quivering  sobs. 

But  presently,  as  our  minds  grew  steadier,  the  thought 
of  Rayburn  came  to  us;  and  the  strain  upon  our  heart 
strings  was  relaxed  a  little  by  remembering  that  our 
lives  still  were  worth  holding  fast  to  in  order  that  we 
might  minister  to  his  needs.  Yet  when  we  came  again 
into  the  room  where  he  lay,  it  seemed  at  first  as  though 
he  also  was  lost  to  us;  for  even  in  that  faint  light  we 
saw  that  his  face  was  a  deadly  white,  and  when  we 
spoke  to  him  he  neither  spoke  nor  moved.  But,  hap 
pily,  our  dread  that  he  had  died  in  that  gloomy  soli 
tude  was  not  realized;  for  as  I  laid  my  hand  upon  his 
bare  breast  I  felt  his  heart  feebly  beating,  and  at  the 
touch  of  my  hand  he  sighed  a  little,  and  then  slowly 
opened  his  eyes. 

"  He's  only  swounded,"  Young  cried,  joyfully.  "  It's 
th'  smotherin'  shut-upness  o'  this  forlorn  hole  he's  lyin' 
in.  There's  a  little  more  air  out  in  th'  big  room.  Just 
grab  t'other  end  o'  th'  stretcher,  Professor,  an'  we'll 
yank  him  out  there — nobody's  likely  t'  come  in  t'  stop 
us  while  this  storm  lasts.  An' — an'  we  must  be  care 
ful  how  we  talk,  Professor,  y'  know,"  he  added,  in  a 
lower  tone,  as  we  raised  the  stretcher.  "  It  won't  do 
for  him  t'  know  about — about  it  now."  There  was  a 
break  in  Young's  voice  as  he  spoke,  and  I  could  feel 
by  the  momentary  quiver  of  the  stretcher  that  a  shiver 


THE    TREASURE-CHAMBER.  401 

went  through  him  as  he  thought  of  that  "it,"  about 
which  we  must  for  a  time  hold  our  peace. 

Young  bore  the  forward  end  of  the  stretcher,  and 
as  we  came  into  the  oratory  I  felt  him  start  as  he  ex 
claimed,  "  What  th'  devil's  broke  loose  here  ?" 

The  darkness  of  the  storm  outside  shrouded  the 
oratory  in  a  dusky  twilight  ;  but  even  through  the 
shadows  which  lay  thick  about  us  we  could  see  that 
there  had  been  within  this  chamber  some  outbreak  of 
extraordinary  and  tremendous  violence  ;  for  the  image 
of  the  god  Huitzilopochtli  had  been  cast  down  and 
broken  into  fragments,  and  just  behind  where  it  had 
stood  there  was  a  dark  rift  in  the  gold-plating  of  the 
walls,  where  several  plates  had  been  wrenched  bodily 
away. 

A  strong  odor  of  sulphur  hung  heavily  in  the  air, 
and,  as  I  perceived  it,  the  whole  matter  was  plain  to 
me.  But  Young  sniffed  at  this  odor  suspiciously  when 
we  had  brought  the  stretcher  gently  to  rest  upon  the 
floor,  and  in  a  startled  voice  exclaimed,  "  Th'  devil  has 
been  bustin'  around  in  here  for  sure,  an'  he's  left  his 
regular  home-made  stink  for  a  give-away!"  and  as  he 
spoke  there  was  manifest  a  decided  bristling  of  his 
fringe  of  hair. 

I  could  not  help  smiling  at  this  quaint  proof  of 
the  shattered  condition  of  Young's  nerves — for,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  he  was  the  very  last  man  in 
the  world  to  place  faith  in  things  supernatural — but  I 
answered  him  promptly  :  "  Then  the  devil  did  a  stroke 
of  honest  business  at  the  same  time,  for  all  this  is  the 
work  of  the  same  thunder-bolt,  or  of  a  part  of  it,  that 
26 


402  THE  AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

killed  that  Indian.  Didn't  you  hear  the  rocks  flying 
from  the  cliff  where  it  struck  ?" 

"  That's  just  what  I  was  goin'  t'  say  myself,"  Young 
replied,  a  little  awkwardly.  "An'  that's  what's  the 
matter  with  Rayburn,  an'  made  him  swound  away. 
How  d'  you  find  yourself  now,  old  man  ?"  he  went  on 
— rather  glad  to  change  the  subject,  I  fancied  —  as 
Rayburn,  at  sound  of  his  own  name,  moved  a  little. 

"  I  feel  queer,"  Rayburn  answered.  "  Sort  of  numb 
and  dizzy.  Where's  the  Padre  ?" 

"An'  it's  not  much  blame  to  you  that  you  do  feel 
queer,"  Young  replied,  hurriedly.  "This  last  thing 
you've  taken  it  into  your  fool  head  t'  do  is  bein'  busted 
all  t'  bits  by  a  stroke  o'  lightnin'.  Most  folks  would 
'a'  been  satisfied  with  havin'  their  legs  pretty  much 
sliced  off  by  Injuns  —  but  reasonableness  ain't  your 
strongest  hold,  Rayburn;  an'  I  guess  it  never  was." 

Rayburn  smiled  faintly  as  Young  spoke,  but  instead 
of  attempting  to  answer  him — being  still  numbed  by 
the  heavy  shock  that  he  had  received — he  settled  his 
head  back  upon  the  rolled-up  coat  that  served  him  for 
a  pillow,  and  languidly  closed  his  eyes.  Whereupon 
Young,  seeing  that  there  was  nothing  further  that  we 
could  do  for  his  comfort,  betook  himself — as  his  bent 
at  all  times  was  when  any  strange  matter  presented 
itself,  and  in  this  case  with  the  half -crazed  eagerness 
with  which  those  upon  whom  a  great  sorrow  has  fall 
en  seek  instinctively  to  engage  their  minds  with  any 
trifling  matter  that  will  change  the  current  of  their 
thoughts — to  investigating  carefully  the  work  of  de 
struction  that  the  thunder-bolt  had  wrought:  examin- 


THE    TREASURE-CHAMBER.  403 

ing  the  fragments  of  the  idol,  and  the  loosened  plates 
of  gold  and  the  place  on  the  wall  whence  these  last 
had  been  wrenched  away;  which  examination  was  the 
easier  because  the  storm-cloud  was  leaving  us — though 
the  almost  continuous  loud  rolling  of  the  thunder  still 
stunned  our  ears — and  a  stronger  light  came  in  through 
the  opening  in  the  roof. 

I  seated  myself  beside  Rayburn  and  paid  no  atten 
tion  to  what  Young  was  doing ;  for  my  brooding  sor 
row  was  like  a  slow  fire  consuming  me — as  the  tragedy 
that  I  had  but  just  witnessed,  and  the  infinite  pathos 
that  there  was  in  seeing  Rayburn  thus  miserably  dying, 
overwhelmed  me  with  a  desolate  despair.  Even  when 
Young  called  to  me,  in  a  tone  so  eager  and  so  pene 
trating  that  at  any  other  time  I  should  have  been 
startled  into  quick  action  by  his  words,  I  did  not  rouse 
myself  to  answer  him ;  though,  in  a  dull  way,  I  knew 
that  he  would  not  thus  have  spoken  unless  some  matter 
of  great  moment  had  aroused  the  full  energy  of  his 
mind 

"  Professor !  I  say,  Professor !"  he  repeated :  "  Get 
right  up  and  come  here.  Don't  sit  there  like  a  chuckle- 
headed  chump.  Get  up,  I  tell  you.  Here's  some  sort 
of  a  show  for  us.  Here's  what  looks  like  a  way  out  o' 
this  God-forsaken  hole !" 

As  I  heard  these  words  I  did  get  up,  and  in  a  hurry, 
and  so  joined  Young  where  he  was  kneeling  on  the 
floor  close  beside  the  rear  wall  of  the  oratory,  directly 
behind  where  the  idol  had  stood  until  the  thunder-bolt 
had  dashed  it  down.  It  was  at  this  point,  apparently, 
that  the  lightning  had  entereci  the  chamber  j  for  here 


404  THE    AZTEC   TREASUBE-HOUSE. 

several  of  the  plates  of  gold  with  which  the  walls  were 
covered — overlapping  each  other  like  fish-scales — had 
been  loosened,  while  three  of  them  had  been  wrenched 
entirely  from  their  fastenings  and  had  fallen  down. 
As  I  joined  him,  Young  excitedly  pointed  to  the  open 
ing  thus  made,  through  which  was  visible  not  a  solid 
wall  of  rock  but  a  dark  cavity,  and  from  which  was 
blowing  a  soft  current  of  cool  air. 

"It's  a  way  out!  It's  a  way  out!  I  tell  you,"  he 
cried.  "  This  suck  o'  wind  proves  it.  If  we  only  can 
get  some  more  o'  these  blasted  plates  loose  we'll  light 
out  o'  this  and  euchre  the  Priest  Captain  an'  his  whole 

d n  outfit  yet!  Ketch  hold  here,  Professor,  an'  put 

your  muscle  into  it  for  all  you're  worth.  Grab  right 
here  ;  now!"  And  Young  and  I  together  pulled  at 
the  same  plate  with  all  our  might  and  main.  But  for 
all  the  impression  that  we  made  upon  it  we  might  as 
well  have  tried  to  pull  down  the  mountain;  the  plate 
did  not  stir.  Young  gave  a  hearty  curse  (and  I  con 
fess  that  hearing  him  swearing  in  that  natural  way 
again  was  a  real  comfort  to  me),  and  then  we  took 
another  pull ;  and  all  this  while,  so  much  does  the 
thought  of  saving  his  life  put  cheer  into  a  man,  my 
heart  was  bounding  within  me  and  the  hot  coursing 
of  my  blood  seemed  like  to  burst  my  veins.  Young's 
fervor  was  not  less  than  mine,  and  we  wrenched  and 
tugged  together,  and  never  stopped  to  mark  our  cut 
and  bleeding  hands. 

"We've  got  t'  do  it !"  Young  exclaimed,  as  we  paused 
at  last,  without  having  loosened  the  plate  in  the  least 
degree.  "  There's  some  way  o'  workin'  this  thing,  I 


THE    TREASURE-CHAMBER.  405 

know.  It  must  be  some  sort  of  a  door,  an'  if  we  only 
can  get  th'  hang  of  it  we'll  be  all  right.  Have  you  got 
your  wind  again,  Professor?  Let's  try  'f  we  can't  sort 
o'  prize  this  plate  out ;  it's  a  little  loose.  Just  get  your 
fingers  under  it  an'  we'll  sort  o'  pull  it  up  an'  out  at 
th'  same  time.  So !  Now  sling  your  muscle  into  it. 
Heft!" 

We  were  stooping  a  little,  and  so  had  a  strong  pur 
chase,  and  with  all  our  united  strength  we  heaved  away 
together.  There  was  a  rattling  of  metal,  a  yielding  of 
the  plate  so  easy  that  our  tremendous  effort  was  out 
of  all  proportion  to  it;  my  fingers  seemed  suddenly  to 
be  nipped  in  a  red-hot  vice ;  Young  uttered  a  yell  of 
pain,  and  then  we  both  were  sprawling  on  our  backs 
on  the  floor,  while  in  front  of  us  was  a  broad  opening 
in  the  wall  where  a  wide  section  of  the  panelling  had 
risen  upward  (the  plates  sliding  up  under  each  other), 
and  so  had  made  an  open  way. 

"H— 11!  how  that  did  hurt!"  Young  mumbled, with 
his  nipped  fingers  in  his  mouth;  and  I  must  say  that 
the  vigor  of  his  language  was  not  uncalled  for,  as  I 
well  understood  by  the  pain  that  I  myself  was  suffer 
ing.  I  never  remember  pinching  my  fingers  so  badly 
as  I  did  then  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life. 

However,  we  did  not  suffer  our  hurts,  which  were 
not  really  serious,  to  delay  us  in  exploring  this  hidden 
place  that  so  suddenly  and  with  such  unnecessary  vio 
lence  had  opened  to  us.  Pushing  upward  the  ingen 
iously  contrived  door  from  the  bottom,  we  easily  raised 
it  until  an  opening  was  discovered  the  full  height  of  a 
man ;  and  through  this  we  went  into  a  narrow  passage 


406  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

in  the  rock  that  in  a  moment  turned  and  so  brought 
us  into  a  room  that  was  nearly  as  large  as  the  oratory 
that  we  had  just  left,  and  that,  as  we  presently  found, 
actually  communicated  with  the  oratory  by  means  of 
two  narrow  slits  high  up  in  the  wall ;  which  apertures 
here  were  plainly  visible,  but  on  the  other  side  were 
so  cleverly  disguised  by  an  ingenious  arrangement 
of  the  overlapping  plates  as  to  be  entirely  concealed. 
Like  the  oratory,  too,  this  room  had  an  opening  in  its 
roof  through  which  air  entered,  and  so  much  light  that 
we  could  see  about  us  plainly.  And  the  very  first 
glance  that  I  cast  around  me  in  this  strange  place 
assured  me  that,  by  sheer  accident,  we  had  found 
our  way  at  last  to  the  secret  chamber  wherein  King 
Chaltzantzin's  treasure  had  lain  hidden  for  a  thousand 
years. 

Rude  shelves  had  been  cut  in  the  rock  on  all  four 
sides  of  the  room,  and  on  these  were  ranged  earthen 
pots  of  curious  shapes,  ornamented  with  strange  de 
vices  that  my  newly  acquired  knowledge  enabled  me 
to  recognize — to  express  the  matter  in  the  terms  of 
our  system  of  heraldry — as  the  arms  of  a  king  quarter 
ed  with  the  arms  of  certain  princely  houses  or  tribes. 
On  these  shelves,  also,  were  many  quaintly  wrought 
vessels  and  some  small  square  boxes,  all  of  which  were 
of  gold — together  with  a  score  or  so  of  small  idols 
moulded  in  clay  or  roughly  carved  in  stone,  in  which 
last  the  workmanship  was  so  far  inferior  to  that  of  the 
earthen-ware  pots  and  golden  vessels  as  to  show  at  a 
glance  that  they  were  the  product  of  a  much  earlier  and 
ruder  age;  but  belonging  to  the  same  age  as  the  gold- 


THE   TREASUKE-CHAMBER.  407 

work,  or  to  a  period  even  later,  was  a  very  beautiful 
Calendar  Stone  most  delicately  carved  in  obsidian,  that 
was  identical,  save  in  the  matter  of  size,  with  the  great 
Calendar  Stone  that  now  is  preserved  in  Mexico  in 
the  National  Museum.  This  was  placed  at  one  end  of 
the  room  upon  a  carved  pedestal;  and  at  the  oppo 
site  end  of  the  room,  the  end  farthest  removed  from 
the  entrance,  was  a  great  stone  image  of  the  god  Chac 
Mool.  Lying  upon  the  Calendar  Stone  was  what  at  first 
I  took  to  be  a  cross-bow  made  of  gold ;  but  more  care 
ful  examination  convinced  me,  especially  in  view  of  the 
place  where  I  had  found  it,  that  this  certainly  was  an 
arbalest — called  also  a  Jacob's  staff  and  a  cross-staff — 
such  as  in  no  very  ancient  times,  until  the  invention 
of  the  quadrant,  was  used  by  Europeans  in  taking  the 
meridional  altitude  of  the  sun  and  stars. 

At  the  moment  that  I  made  this  last  most  curious 
and  exceedingly  interesting  discovery,  Young,  who  had 
been  investigating  on  his  own  account,  gave  a  yell  of 
delight,  and  bounded  towards  me  flourishing  his  own 
brace  of  revolvers  in  his  hands.  "They're  all  here!" 
he  cried.  "All  our  guns  are  here,  an'  th'  cartridges  too  ! 
Now  we  have  got  the  bulge  on  these  devils  for  sure !" 

As  he  spoke  I  also  was  thrilled  with  joy  at  the 
thought  of  the  vengeance  which  this  recovery  of  our 
arms  might  enable  us  to  take  upon  Fray  Antonio's 
murderers ;  but  my  joy  was  only  momentary,  for  I 
could  not  but  reflect  that,  after  all,  these  Aztlanecas 
had  but  acted  in  accordance  with  their  lights — except 
ing  only  the  Priest  Captain,  for  whom  the  most  cruel 
death  would  be  all  too  merciful — and  that  our  slaying 


408  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

them  would  not  be  vengeance,  but  mere  brutal  re 
venge.  Having  which  thoughts  in  mind,  I  answered, 
"At  least  we  can  shoot  ourselves  with  them,  and  so  be 
safe  from  death  by  sacrifice." 

"Not  much  we  won't  shoot  ourselves,"  Young  re 
plied,  with  great  energy;  "an'  nobody's  goin'  t'  come 
monkeyin'  'round  us  with  sacrifices,  either.  Why,  man 
alive,  we  ain't  goin'  t'  stay  here  —  not  by  a  jugful! 
We're  goin' t'  light  right  out  o'  this  an'  be  smack  off 
for  home." 

"How?"  I  asked,  blankly,  and  with  real  alarm;  for 
the  hot  hope  that  had  filled  me  at  the  thought  of  our 
having  found  a  way  of  escape  had  vanished  as  I  per 
ceived  that  from  this  chamber  there  was  no  outlet  save 
the  hole  in  the  roof;  which  hole  also  accounted  for  the 
current  of  air  whereby  my  hope  had  been  inspired. 
Therefore,  when  Young  spoke  in  this  extravagant  fash 
ion,  the  dread  came  over  me  that  he  was  going  mad. 

"  How  ?"  he  answered,  "  why,  through  that  Jack 
Mullins,  of  course.  He  is  th'  tippin'  kind.  I  was  just 
tryin'  him,  while  you  was  pokin'  'round  in  that  old  rub 
bish,  when  I  happened  t'  ketch  sight  of  our  guns;  an' 
seein'  them,  you  bet,  made  me  bounce.  Here  goes  for 
another  shot  at  him!  Stick  somethin'  under  him  t' 
keep  him  up  when  I  heave." 

I  was  so  dazed  by  the  stunning  wonder  and  by  the 
joy  that  Young's  words  carried  with  them,  that  I  obey 
ed  his  order  mechanically.  With  a  grave  seriousness 
he  seated  himself  upon  the  head  of  the  idol;  and  as  the 
figure  and  the  stone  base  upon  which  it  rested  settled 
down  at  the  end  upon  which  he  sat^  and  its  other 


THE     TREASURE-CHAMBER.  409 

correspondingly  swung  upward,  showing  beneath  it  a 
dark  opening,  I  wedged  up  the  mass  with  a  heavy  plate 
of  gold  that  served  as  the  lid  of  one  of  the  boxes  ranged 
upon  the  shelves. 

"  It  won't  do  for  us  both  together  t'  go  down  there," 
Young  said,  as  he  rose  from  his  seat  and  we  peered  into 
the  dark  cavity.  "  Mullins  might  take  't  into  his  fool 
head  t'  shut  himself  up  while  we  was  down  there,  an' 
that  ud  mean  cold  weather  for  Rayburn  an'  Pablo. 
I'll  just  jump  down  them  steps  an'  prospect  a  little, 
while  you  look  after  him  t'  see  that  he  keeps  steady;" 
and  with  these  words  down  he  went  into  the  hole. 

In  five  minutes  or  so  he  joined  me  again.  "  It  don't 
look  like  th'  nicest  place  I  ever  got  into,"  he  said,  "but 
I  guess  we'll  have  t'  take  th'  chances  on  it.  There's  a 
little  room  down  there,  an'  out  o'  that  a  kind  of  a  back 
entry  leads  into  an  everlastin'  big  cave.  But  there 
seems  t'  be  a  sort  of  a  path  runnin'  along  in  the  cave 
— it's  all  as  dark  as  th'  devil — an'  as  paths  mostly  have 
two  ends  to  'em,  I  guess  if  we  keep  on  long  enough 
we'll  get  somewhere.  We  can't  Stay  here,  that's  sure, 
so  we've  just  got  t'  risk  it,  an'  th'  sooner  we  get  Ray- 
burn  down  there  th'  better.  When  he's  solidly  safe, 
then  we  can  do  some  prospectin' — by  good-luck  we've 
got  lots  o'  matches — an'  see  where  that  path  goes  to. 
Just  sling  on  your  guns,  Professor,  an'  let's  mosey  back 
an'  get  th'  percession  started.  It's  hard  lines  on  Ray- 
burn  t'  tumble  him  into  a  hole  like  that  when  he's  feel- 
in'  so  bad;  but  I  guess  it's  better  t'  take  th'  chances 
o'  killin'  him  that  way  ourselves  than  it  is  t'  let  these 
devils  do  it  for  sure.  Come  on  1" 


410  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

While  he  was  speaking,  Young  had  buckled  his  re 
volvers  about  his  waist  and  had  siung  his  rifle  over 
his  shoulder,  and  I  also  in  like  manner  had  armed  my 
self — whereby  was  restored  to  me  a  most  comforting 
feeling  of  strength.  As  for  Young,  the  recovery  of  his 
weapons  seemed  to  make  him  grow  two  inches  taller, 
and  he  swaggered  in  his  walk. 


XXXVI. 

THE   VENGEANCE    OP   THE    GODS. 

ALMOST  in  the  moment  that  we  thus  found  our 
selves  in  condition  to  show  fight  again,  the  need  for 
fighting  seemed  like  to  be  forced  upon  us;  for  as  we 
turned  to  leave  the  treasure-chamber  we  were  startled 
by  hearing  a  creaking  sound  that  we  knew  came  from 
the  sliding  upward  of  the  grating  in  its  metal  grooves 
wherewith  the  entrance  to  our  prison  was  made  fast. 

We  paused  for  a  moment,  and  then  Young  motioned 
to  me  to  follow  him,  stepping  lightly ;  and  as  we  came 
out  into  the  oratory  we  heard  a  fresh  creaking,  by 
which  we  knew  that  the  grating  had  been  closed. 

"  I  guess  it's  only  th'  fellow  puttin'  in  th'  grub," 
Young  whispered.  "  But  go  easy,  Professor,  an'  have 
your  guns  all  handy,  so's  you  can  shoot.  If  anybody 
has  come  in  it  won't  do  t'  let  'em  get  out  again. 
Only  mind  you  don't  shoot  unless  you  really  have  to. 
If  there's  only  two  or  three  of  'em  we'd  better  try  t' 


THE    VENGEANCE    OF   THE    GOt>8.  411 

club  'em  with  our  Winchesters,  so's  not  t'  bring  all 
hands  down  on  us  with  a  rush  before  we  can  get  Ray- 
burn  away." 

As  he  spoke,  we  were  assured  that  some  one  had 
entered  when  the  grating  was  raised  and  had  remained 
on  our  side  of  the  grating  when  it  was  closed  again, 
for  we  heard  footsteps  in  the  room  where  we  ordinari 
ly  lay  ;  and  then  the  footsteps  drew  nearer,  as  though 
the  unseen  person  were  examining  the  other  rooms  in 
search  of  us,  and  we  knew  that  in  another  moment  or 
two  this  person  would  enter  the  chamber  wherein  we 
were.  Rayburn  was  lying  so  quietly  that  it  seemed  as 
though  he  had  fallen  into  a  swoon  again  ;  and  Pablo, 
as  we  could  tell  by  hearing  his  sobs,  had  betaken  him 
self  to  the  room  in  which  El  Sabio  was  tethered  in 
search  of  solacing  companionship.  Young  motioned 
me  to  stand  on  one  side  of  the  entrance  to  the  oratory, 
and  himself  stood  on  the  other ;  and  thus  we  waited, 
while  the  footsteps  rapidly  drew  nearer,  in  readi 
ness  most  effectually  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  whoever 
might  enter  the  room. 

The  man  who  did  enter,  passing  between  us,  was  the 
Priest  Captain.  As  he  saw  the  wreck  of  the  idol,  and 
the  opening  in  the  wall  behind  where  the  idol  had 
stood,  he  uttered  an  exclamation  of  alarm  and  rage  ; 
and  in  the  same  moment  some  instinctive  dread  of  the 
danger  that  menaced  him  caused  him  to  turn  suddenly 
around.  So,  for  an  instant,  he  confronted  us  —  and 
never  shall  I  forget  the  look  of  malignant  hatred  that 
was  in  his  face  as  in  that  instant  he  regarded  us, 
nor  his  quick  despairing  gesture  at  sight  of  Young 


412  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

standing  there  with  his  rifle  raised.  Even  as  he 
opened  his  mouth  to  cry  out,  before  any  sound  came 
from  his  lips,  the  heavy  barrel  of  Young's  rifle  swept 
downward,  and  with  a  groan  he  fell. 

Had  the  blow  struck  fairly  it  could  not  but  have  split 
the  man's  skull  open  ;  but  he  swerved  aside  a  little  as 
the  rifle  came  down,  and  the  weight  of  the  stroke, 
glancing  from  his  head,  fell  upon  his  shoulder.  In  an 
instant,  dropping  the  rifle,  Young  was  kneeling  on  his 
breast  with  a  hand  buried  in  the  flabby  flesh  of  his  old 
throat,  holding  tight-gripped  his  windpipe.  Except 
ing  only  Rayburn,  Young  was  the  strongest  man  I 
ever  knew  (though,  to  be  sure,  at  that  time  he  was 
weakened  by  his  then  recent  wound  and  by  the  priva 
tions  of  his  imprisonment),  yet  it  was  all  that  he  could 
do  to  hold  that  old  man  down  and  to  maintain  his 
choking  grasp.  With  a  most  desperate  energy  and  a 
fierce  strength  that  seemed  out  of  all  nature  in  a  creat 
ure  so  lean  and  old  and  shrivelled,  the  Priest  Captain 
writhed  and  struggled  in  his  efforts  to  throw  Young 
off,  and  sought  also  to  grasp  Young's  throat  with  his 
long  bony  hands  —  while  foam  gathered  on  his  thin 
lips,  and  his  withered  brown  face  grew  black  with 
congested  blood,  and  his  black  eyes  protruded  until 
the  half  of  the  eyeballs,  bloody  with  bursting  veins, 
showed  around  the  black,  dilated  pupils.  Arid  then 
his  struggles  slowly  grew  less  and  less  violent,  his 
knotted  muscles  gradually  relaxed,  his  mouth  fell  open 
BO  that  his  tongue  lolled  out  hideously,  his  legs  and 
arms  twitched  a  little  spasmodically — and  then  he  lay 
quite  still. 


THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  GODS.         413 

For  a  minute  or  two  longer  Young  maintained  his 
grasp.  Then  rising  to  his  feet,  breathing  heavily,  he 
wiped  the  sweat  from  his  face  as  he  exclaimed,  at  the 
same  moment  giving  the  dead  body  a  vicious  kick  : 
"  You  black  devil,  take  that !  Now  I've  squared  ac 
counts  with  you  for  killin'  th'  Padre — and  it's  the  best 
day's  work  I've  ever  done  !" 

Though  the  struggle  between  the  two  had  been  a 
very  desperate  one,  there  had  been  no  noise  about  it. 
Through  the  whole  fight  Rayburn  had  remained  buried 
in  his  death-like  stupor  ;  and  Pablo,  though  so  near  to 
us,  had  heard  no  sound  of  it  at  all. 

"  Now,  then,  Professor,"  Young  said,  when  he  had 
got  his  wind  back, "  we've  got  t'  bounce.  Th'  first 
thing  t'  do  is  t'  fasten  that  gratin'  on  our  side,  so's  no 
body  can  get  in  here  t'  bother  us  while  we're  doin'  our 
skippin'.  I  guess  we  can  sort  o'  wedge  it  fast  so's  t' 
stand  'em  off  for  an  hour  or  two,  anyway,  an'  that's 
time  enough  to  give  us  a  fair  start." 

"  We  can  do  something  better  than  that,  I  think,"  I 
said,  as  we  went  together  towards  the  grating.  "  Un 
less  I  am  much  mistaken,  only  the  Priest  Captain  knew 
about  this  sliding  door  and  the  treasure-chamber  be 
yond  it.  If  we  can  restore  to  their  places  those  three 
plates,  and  can  close  the  door  behind  us,  I  am  persuaded 
that  so  far  as  pursuit  of  us  is  concerned  we  shall  be  ab 
solutely  safe." 

"  Gosh  !"  Young  exclaimed.  "  D'  you  know,  Pro 
fessor,  I  wouldn't  'a'  given  you  credit  for  havin'  that 
much  common-sense.  It's  a  big  idea,  that  is,  an'  we'll 
try  it  on.  But,  all  th'  same,  we've  got  t'  make  things 


414  THE   AZTEC  TREASURE-HOUSE. 

as  sure  as  we  can,  an'  this  little  job  must  be  attended 
to  first." 

As  we  approached  the  grating  we  saw  two  of  the 
temple  guard  standing  outside  of  it,  apparently  wait 
ing  for  the  Priest  Captain's  return ;  and  these  men 
looked  at  us  with  such  evident  suspicion  that  I  feared 
for  the  success  of  our  plans.  "  Just  talk  to  'em,"  Young 
said,  hurriedly.  "Talk  to  'em  about  th'  last  election, 
or  chicken-coops,  or  anything  you  please,  while  I  take 
a  look  'round  an'  see  how  we're  goin'  t'  get  this  job 
done." 

Young  dropped  behind  me,  and  then  aside  and  so  out 
of  sight,  as  I  advanced  to  the  grating  and  spoke  to 
the  men,  whose  faces  somewhat  cleared  as  I  told  them 
that  the  Priest  Captain  desired  that  they  should  wait 
there  a  little  longer.  And  then  I  managed  to  hold  their 
interest  for  some  minutes  while  I  spoke  about  the  devil 
that  was  in  El  Sabio,  and  about  other  devils  of  a  like 
sort  whom  I  had  known  in  my  time.  While  I  thus 
spoke  I  heard  a  little  tinkling  sound,  as  of  metal  strik 
ing  against  stone — but  if  the  soldiers  also  heard  it  they 
paid  no  attention  to  it — and  then  Young  whispered, 
"We're  solid  now;  come  on!"  Whereupon  I  quickly 
ended  my  imaginative  discourse  upon  demoniac  don 
keys,  and  with  no  appearance  of  haste  we  walked  away. 

"  It  was  just  as  easy  as  rollin'  off  a  log,"  Young  said, 
jubilantly.  "  There  was  a  big  gold  peg  stickin'  there 
all  ready  t'  slide  into  a  slot,  so's  t'  hold  th'  gratin' 
down,  an'  all  I  had  t'  do  was  t'  slide  it.  I  guess,  with 
a  plug  like  that  holdin'  that  gratin'  fast,  they'll  need 
jacks  t'  open  it,  ThJ  only  other  way  t  •  start;  it  '11  be 


THE    VENGEANCE    OP   THE    GODS.  415 

rammin'  it  with  a  bit  o'  timber;  but  bustin'  it  in  that 
way  '11  take  a  lot  o'  time,  an'  half  an  hour's  plenty  for 
all  we've  got  t'  do.  If  you're  straight  in  thinkin'  no 
body  knows  about  that  slidin'  door  we're  solid." 

I  felt  very  sure  in  my  own  mind  that  I  was  right  in 
believing  that  only  the  Priest  Captain  had  known  of 
this  secret  opening;  for,  after  him,  the  most  likely  per 
son  to  have  knowledge  of  it  was  the  keeper  of  the 
archives,  and  that  he  was  altogether  ignorant  of  it  I 
was  well  assured.  Therefore  I  most  cheerfully  helped 
Young,  so  far  as  my  unskilful  hands  could  be  useful, 
in  the  work  of  restoring  the  gold  plates  to  the  places 
whence  the  lightning  had  wrenched  them  loose;  and 
when  this  work  was  done,  so  cleverly  did  Young  man 
age  it,  there  was  no  possibility  of  distinguishing  the 
door  from  any  other  portion  of  the  wall ;  nor  was  there 
then  a  sign  of  any  sort  remaining  to  show  that  by  the 
passage  of  a  thunder-bolt  the  idol  had  been  destroyed. 

As  we  were  finishing  this  piece  of  work  we  heard 
the  soldiers  at  the  grating  calling  to  the  Priest  Cap 
tain — at  first  in  low  tones,  and  then  more  loudly  ;  and 
then  we  heard  them  give  a  yell  together,  which  con 
vinced  us  that  they  had  tried  to  raise  the  grating  and 
had  found  that  it  was  fastened  down. 

The  ten  minutes  that  followed  was  the  most  ex 
citing  time  that  ever  I  passed  through.  Notwith 
standing  the  secure  fashion  in  which  the  grating  was 
fastened,  we  could  not  but  dread  that  those  outside 
had  knowledge  of  some  means  whereby  it  could  be 
loosened;  and  in  any  event  there  was  no  doubt  but 
that  they  could  force  a  way  in  upon  us  by  beating  it 


416  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

down.  Therefore  we  knew  that  there  was  no  safety 
for  us  until  we  were  fairly  out  of  the  oratory,  and 
had  closed  behind  us  the  sliding  door — and  with  such 
difficult  material  to  deal  with  as  Rayburn,  who  still 
lay  in  a  heavy  stupor,  and  Pablo,  whom  sorrow  had 
wellnigh  crazed,  we  found  it  hard  to  make  such  haste 
as  the  sharp  exigency  of  our  situation  required. 
Pablo,  indeed,  was  so  lost  in  wonder  at  finding  the 
broken  idol,  and  the  dead  body  of  the  Priest  Captain, 
and  a  door  open  in  the  solid  wall,  that  what  little  re 
mained  of  his  wits  disappeared  entirely;  so  that  we 
had  almost  to  carry  him — while  El  Sabio  most  intelli 
gently  followed  him — into  the  treasure-chamber,  and 
there  we  left  the  two  together  while  we  returned  for 
Rayburn.  And  as  we  lifted  the  stretcher  our  hearts 
bounded,  for  at  that  instant  there  was  a  tremendous 
crash  at  the  grating ;  whereby  we  knew  that  those 
without  had  brought  to  bear  against  it  some  sort  of  a 
battering-ram  that  they  might  beat  it  in. 

"  It's  a  close  call,"  Young  said  between  his  teeth ; 
and  added,  as  we  rested  the  stretcher  inside  the  pas 
sage  while  we  closed  behind  us  the  sliding  door  :  "  If 
you're  off  your  base,  Professor,  an'  they  do  know  th' 
trick  o'  this  thing,  it  may  be  all  day  with  us  yet — but 
it's  a  comfort  t'  know  that  even  if  they  do  finish  us 
we'll  everlastin'ly  salt  'em  first  with  our  guns." 

We  heard  another  great  crash  behind  us,  but  faintly 
now  that  the  sliding  door  was  closed,  as  we  went  on 
ward  into  the  treasure-chamber  ;  and  here  we  heard 
the  like  sound  again,  more   clearly,  through  the  slits 
cut  in  the  wall.     As  gently  as  our  haste,  and  the  awk- 


THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  GODS.         417 

wardness  of  that  narrow  way  would  permit,  we  lifted 
Rayburn  from  the  stretcher,  and  so  carried  him  down 
the  short  flight  of  stairs  beneath  the  upraised  statue 
to  the  little  chamber  that  there  was  hollowed  in  the 
rock.  Here  we  laid  him  upon  the  stretcher  again  ; 
and  then,  without  any  ceremony  whatever,  we  bun 
dled  Pablo  and  El  Sabio  down  the  hole.  It  was  a 
smaller  aperture,  even,  than  that  through  which  we 
had  come  forth  from  the  Cave  of  the  Dead,  and  how 
El  Sabio  was  able  to  condense  himself  sufficiently  to 
get  through  it  will  remain  a  puzzle  to  me  to  my  dying 
day. 

All  this  while  we  could  hear  plainly,  through  the 
slits  in  the  wall,  the  crashing  blows  which  every 
minute  or  so  were  delivered  against  the  grating,  to 
gether  with  a  shrill  roar  of  shouts  and  yells  ;  and  we 
knew  that  before  this  vigorous  assault  the  grating 
must  give  way  within  a  very  brief  period,  and  so  let 
in  the  whole  yelping  pack.  If  I  were  right  in  my  be 
lief  that  the  Priest  Captain  alone  knew  of  the  secret 
outlet  to  the  oratory,  we  still  would  be  safe  enough, 
and  could  make  some  preliminary  examination  of  the 
cave  before  we  closed  the  way  behind  us  irrevocably 
by  letting  the  statue  fall  back  into  its  place  ;  but  if  I 
were  mistaken,  then  there  was  nothing  for  us  but  to 
take  the  chance  of  life  and  death  by  going  on  blindly 
into  that  black  cavern,  after  wedging  fast  the  under 
side  of  the  statue  in  such  a  way  that  it  no  longer 
could  be  swung  open  from  above. 

It  was  most  necessary,  therefore,  that  we  should 
see  what  course  our  enemies  would  take  when  they 
27 


418  THE    AZTEC  TREAStJKE-HOTJSE. 

came  into  the  oratory  and  found  it  empty  of  us,  and 
the  idol  broken,  and  the  Priest  Captain  lying  dead 
there ;  and,  that  we  might  compass  this  end,  Young 
and  I  returned  into  the  treasure-chamber  and  mounted 
upon  a  ledge  that  seemed  to  have  been  provided  for 
a  standing-place  —  whence  we  had  a  clear  view  into 
the  oratory  through  the  slits  in  the  wall.  And  at  the 
very  moment  that  we  thus  stationed  ourselves  there 
reverberated  through  those  rock-hewn  chambers  a 
deafening  crash  and  a  jingling  clang  of  metal  and  a 
rattle  of  falling  stone  ;  and  with  this  came  a  yell  of 
triumph  and  a  rush  of  footsteps — and  then,  in  an  in 
stant,  the  oratory  was  full  of  soldiers  and  priests,  all 
yelling  together  like  so  many  fiends. 

But  upon  this  violent  hubbub  there  fell  a  hush  of 
awe  and  wonder  as  those  who  had  thus  tumultuously 
entered  the  oratory  saw  the  Priest  Captain  lying  dead 
amid  the  fragments  of  the  shattered  idol,  and  per 
ceived  that  the  prisoners  who  had  been  shut  within 
these  seemingly  solid  walls  had  vanished  utterly  away; 
and  then  a  sobbing  murmur,  that  presently  swelled 
into  moans  and  cries  of  terror,  arose  from  the  throng ; 
and  in  a  moment  more,  seized  by  a  common  impulse, 
the  whole  company  bowed  downward,  in  suppliant 
dread  of  the  gods  by  whom  such  direful  wonders  had 
been  wrought. 

Young  gave  a  long  sigh  of  relief,  and  with  a  most 
mouth-filling  oath  whispered  in  my  ear,  "  They  haven't 
tumbled  to  it,  an'  we're  all  right !" 

As  we  gazed  at  these  terror-stricken  creatures,  a 
thought  occurred  to  me  on  which  I  promptly  acted. 


THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  GODS.         419 

"Get  both  of  your  revolvers  pointed  through  that 
hole,"  I  whispered  to  Young.  "  Point  high,  so  that  the 
balls  will  not  hit  anybody ;  and  when  I  begin  to  shoot 
do  you  shoot  also,  and  as  quickly  as  yon  can.  Mind, 
you  are  not  to  hit  anybody,"  I  added ;  for  I  saw  by 
the  look  on  Young's  face  that  he  longed  to  fire  into 
the  crowd  point-blank.  For  answer  he  gave  me  a 
rather  sulky  nod  of  assent ;  but  I  saw  by  the  way  that 
he  held  his  pistols  that  my  order  was  obeyed.  "  Now," 
I  said,  "  Fire!" — and  as  rapidly  as  self-acting  revolvers 
would  do  it,  we  poured  twenty-four  shots  through  the 
slits  in  the  wall.  No  doubt  several  people  were  hurt 
by  balls  bounding  back  from  the  rock,  but  I  am  confi 
dent  that  nobody  was  killed. 

When  we  ceased  firing  it  was  impossible  to  see  any 
thing  in  the  oratory,  because  of  the  dense  cloud  of 
sulphurous  smoke  wherewith  it  was  filled  ;  but  such 
shrieks  and  yells  of  soul-racking  terror  as  came  from 
beneath  that  black  canopy  I  hope  I  may  never  hear 
again.  I  waited  a  little,  until  this  wild  outburst  had 
somewhat  quieted,  and  then — placing  my  mouth  close 
to  one  of  the  openings  and  speaking  in  a  voice  that 
I  tried  to  make  like  that  of  Fray  Antonio — I  said,  in 
deep  and  solemn  tones, "  Behold  the  vengeance  of  the 
strangers'  God!" 

What  effect  my  words  produced  I  cannot  tell.  Our 
firing  must  have  loosened  a  fragment  of  rock  between 
the  gold  plating  that  lined  the  oratory  and  the  outer 
surface  of  the  wall,  and  even  as  I  spoke  this  fragment 
fell.  With  its  fall  the  opening  was  irrevocably  closed. 

"  That  was  a  boss  dodge,"  said  Young,  as  he  r§. 


420  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

charged  his  revolver.  "Those  fellows  '11  just  think 
hell's  broke  loose  in  here,  for  sure  ;  and  I  guess  after 
they've  onct  fairly  got  outside  they'll  rather  be  skinned 
alive  than  come  back  again.  But  what  did  you  say  to 
'era?  Hearin'  you  talkin'  like  th'  Padre,  that  way, 
gave  me  a  regular  jolt.  Don't  you  think,  though,  may 
be  it  was  a  little  bit  risky  t'  give  ourselves  away  ?" 

But  when  I  had  repeated  in  English  the  words  which 
I  had  spoken,Young  very  seriously  shook  hands  with 
me.  "  Shake !"  he  said.  "  I've  done  you  injustice, 
Professor.  Sometimes  I've  thought  that  you  was  too 
much  asleep  for  your  own  good — but  if  anybody  ever 
did  anything  more  wide  awake  than  that,  I'd  like  t' 
know  what  he  did  and  who  he  was.  Why,  when  those 
fellows  tell  about  all  that's  been  goin'  on  in  here — 
about  their  busted  idol,  an'  their  dead  Priest  Captain, 
an'  our  skippin,'  an'  this  row  our  shootin'  has  made, 
an'  then  about  th'  Padre's  ghost  talkin'  to  'em  that 
way — it's  bound  t'  give  'em  such  a  jolt  that  th'  whole 
outfit  '11  slew  smack  round  an'  be  Christians  right 
off!" 

Some  such  notion  as  this  had  been  in  my  own  mind 
as  I  executed  the  plan  that  on  the  spur  of  the  moment 
I  had  formed.  When,  later,  I  thought  about  it  more 
calmly,  I  could  not  but  regret,  for  Fray  Antonio's  sake, 
my  hasty  action ;  for  he  would  have  been  the  very  last 
man  to  approve  of  such  stringent  methods  of  advanc 
ing  the  Christian  faith.  If  any  result  came  from  my 
demonstration,  it  certainly  came  through  terror ;  and 
the  essence  of  Fray  Antonio's  doctrine,  as  it  was  also 
of  his  own  nature,  was  gentleness  and  love. 


THROUGH    DARKNESS   TO    LIGHT.  421 


XXXVH. 

THROUGH    DARKNESS   TO   LIGHT. 

"I  GUESS  we're  solid  now,  as  far  as  bein'  bothered 
by  those  scared  devils  goes,"  Young  said,  as  we  step 
ped  down  from  the  ledge  of  rock  on  which  we  had 
been  standing;  "but  this  ain't  no  time  t'  take  no 
chances,  an'  th'  sooner  we  see  what  show  we've  got  for 
gettin'  anywhere  through  that  cave,  th'  better  it'll  be. 
An*  we've  got  t'  look  after  Rayburn.  He's  closter  t' 
handin'  in  his  checks  t'-day  than  he's  been  at  all.  Just 
think  o'  him  keepin'  still  through  all  that  row,  an'  let- 
tin'  himself  be  yanked  around  like  a  bag  o'  meal  with 
out  takin'  any  notice  of  it!  But  there's  just  a  squeal 
of  a  chance  for  him  if  we  do  get  clear  away.  Knowin' 
that  he's  safe  '11  do  him  more  good,  even,  than  fresh 
air  an'  sunshine — an'  oh  Lord !  how  good  fresh  air  an' 
sunshine  '11  be,  if  ever  we  do  strike  'em  again !" 

When  we  descended  the  stair-way  again  to  the  little 
hollow  in  the  rock  where  Rayburn  was  lying,  we  found 
that  he  still  remained  in  his  dull  stupor  and  took  no 
notice  of  our  coming.  Close  beside  were  Pablo  and 
El  Sabio,  huddled  together  for  mutual  support  in  this 
very  trying  passage  of  their  lives.  El  Sabio,  indeed, 
was  a  most  melancholy  and  dejected  creature,  for  his 
short  commons  and  his  long  confinement  had  taken  the 
spirit  out  of  him  pretty  thoroughly;  but  for  our  pur- 


422  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

poses  just  then,  when  his  tractability  was  very  neces 
sary  to  us,  it  was  a  piece  of  good-fortune  that  he  had 
fallen  into  so  low  a  way.  As  for  Pablo,  the  boy  was 
in  so  dazed  a  condition  that  I  feared  greatly  he  would 
wholly  lose  his  wits. 

There  was  only  a  faint  suggestion  of  light  in  that 
deeply  hidden  place,  and  Young  struck  a  match  that 
he  might  see  to  begin  his  explorations.  "  Well,  I'll  be 
shot,"  he  exclaimed,  as  the  wax -taper  shed  its  clear 
light  around  us,  "if  here  ain't  a  conductor's  lantern 
hangin'  up  all  ready  for  us,  an'  a  can  o'  kerosene  oil !" 
As  he  lighted  the  lantern,  and  the  letters  F.  C.  C.  show 
ed  clearly  on  the  glass,  he  added,  in  a  tone  of  still 
greater  amazement :  "  Ferro-Carril  Central !  Why,  it 
b'longs  t'  one  o'  th'  boys  on  th'  Central! — but  how  th' 
dickens  did  it  ever  get  here?  An'  here's  a  lot  of  old 
clothes — th'  sort  o'  rags  th'  low-down  Greasers  wear. 
An'  I'm  blest,"  he  went  on,  as  he  picked  up  a  scrap  of 
paper  from  the  floor,  "if  this  ain't  a  Mexican  Central 
ticket  from  Leon  to  Silao!  It's  dated  last  June,  an' 
it's  only  punched  once,  so  't  couldn't  'a'  been  used  all 
the  way.  I  say,  Professor,  am  I  asleep  or  awake  ?" 

As  I  examined  the  several  articles  which  we  had 
come  upon  so  strangely  in  this  incongruous  place,  a  flood 
of  light  was  let  in  upon  my  mind,  and  with  this  came 
also  the  glad  certainty  that  the  way  before  us  to  free 
dom  was  open  and  assured.  My  belief  that  the  Priest 
Captain  had  been  in  communication  with  the  outside 
world  no  longer  admitted  of  a  doubt,  for  here  was  ab 
solute  proof  of  it:  the  clothes  which  he  wore  when 
making  his  expeditions  into  the  nineteenth  century; 


THROUGH    DARKNESS    TO    LIGHT.  423 

the  lantern  that  he  had  stolen  in  order  the  more  easily 
to  find  his  way  through  the  cave  ;  the  railway  ticket 
that  he  had  but  lately  used.  In  an  instant  I  had  con 
nected  all  this  with  what  the  guardian  of  the  archives 
had  told  me  concerning  the  Priest  Captain's  habit  of 
retiring  for  long  periods  of  time  to  one  of  the  cham 
bers  in  which  we  had  been  imprisoned,  and  the  whole 
matter  was  as  plain  to  me  as  day;  and  I  knew  now, 
that  in  order  to  guard  against  discovery,  he,  or  one  of 
his  predecessors,  to  whom  this  secret  way  must  also 
have  been  known,  had  caused  to  be  set  in  place  the 
fastening  by  which  the  grating  could  be  secured  upon 
its  inner  side ;  which  fastening,  within  that  very  hour, 
had  been  the  means  of  saving  our  lives. 

"  Well,"  said  Young,  dryly,  when  I  had  briefly  ex 
plained  these  several  matters,  "I  guess  he  won't  pull 
th'  wool  over  nobody's  eyes  any  more !  An'  now  you 
an'  me  '11  do  some  prospectin'.  We  must  go  back  up 
stairs,  before  we  pull  out  for  good,  an'  bag  what  there 
is  there  that's  worth  carryin'  off ;  but  th'  first  thing  t' 
do  is  t'  get  Rayburn  where  he'll  be  comfortable  an' 
safe.  Until  that's  attended  to  we've  got  t'  be  careful 
an'  go  slow ;  so  we'll  rouse  up  this  fool  of  a  Pablo,  an' 
get  it  into  his  head  that  if  he  hears  anybody  comin' 
he's  t'  knock  th'  plug  from  under  Mullins  an'  let  him 
down,  an'  then  chock  him  fast  with  a  rock  underneath. 
It's  not  likely  that  anybody  will  come,  an'  even  if  they 
do,  I  don't  think  that  they'll  know  th'  trick  about  Mul 
lins'  tippin',  for  that's  a  point  that  I'll  bet  a  whole  kag 
o'  beer  th'  Priest  Captain  didn't  give  away  t'  nobody. 
I  tell  you,  Professor,  there  wasn't  any  flies  on  that  old 


424  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

man,  now  was  there?  He  was  a  wicked  old  devil,  an' 
I'm  glad  I  did  for  him;  but  he  was  just  an  everlastin' 
keen  one,  an'  a  rustler  from  th'  word  go !" 

In  the  dazed  condition  in  which  he  then  was,  we 
scarcely  should  have  ventured  to  place  Pablo  in  a  po 
sition  of  such  grave  responsibility  had  there  been  any 
likelihood  of  his  being  called  upon  to  perform  the  duty 
with  which  we  charged  him ;  but  we  were  well  satis 
fied  that  to  the  Priest  Captain  alone  had  been  known 
the  secret  of  the  sliding  door,  and  that,  consequently, 
the  need  for  closing  the  passage  leading  upward  into 
the  treasure  -  chamber  would  not  arise.  Without  any 
fear  for  Rayburn's  safety,  therefore,  we  left  him  lying 
in  the  little  room  at  the  foot  of  the  stair-way,  and 
thence  went  forth  through  a  cleft  in  the  rock — that 
seemed  to  be  a  natural  crevice,  where  the  mountain  was 
split  apart — and  so  came  into  a  natural  cave  of  such 
great  size  that  the  light  of  the  lantern  was  not  suffi 
cient  to  enable  us  to  see  its  roof  nor  its  farther  wall. 
Save  that  the  well-defined  path  that  we  followed  was 
continuously  steep,  we  did  not  find  walking  difficult, 
for  the  fragments  of  rock  with  which  the  floor  of  the 
cave  everywhere  was  strewn  had  been  lifted  aside 
carefully,  so  as  to  make  a  smooth  and  easy  way.  And 
only  in  one  place  —  where  for  a  short  distance  the 
path  skirted  the  edge  of  a  black  gulf,  in  the  depths  of 
which  we  could  hear  the  rush  of  water — was  any  part 
of  it  dangerous. 

For  near  an  hour  we  went  onward,  all  the  while 
steadily  ascending ;  and  then,  as  we  turned  a  corner, 
we  saw  a  long  way  before  us  a  faintly  luminous  haze. 


THROUGH    DARKNESS   TO    LIGHT.  425 

It  was  so  very  faint  that  only  by  holding  the  lantern 
behind  us,  and  then  closing  our  eyes  for  a  moment, 
could  we  assure  ourselves  that  what  we  saw  really  was 
light  at  all ;  but  when  we  turned  another  corner,  pres 
ently,  the  light,  though  still  faint,  was  unmistakable ; 
whereat  Young  gave  a  whoop  of  joy,  and  we  quickened 
our  steps  in  our  eager  longing  to  behold  the  sunshine 
that  we  knew  could  not  be  far  away.  Suddenly  the 
path  dipped  downward,  and  then  another  turn  brought 
us  into  light  so  strong  that  the  lantern  no  longer  was 
needed  to  show  us  where  to  tread ;  and  by  a  common 
impulse  we  gave  a  great  glad  shout  together  and  went 
onward  at  a  run;  and  so,  running  and  shouting  like  the 
crazy  creatures  that  truly  for  the  time  being  we  were, 
we  made  one  turn  more,  and  then  beheld  before  us, 
reaching  away  broadly  and  openly  in  a  fashion  to  give 
one  a  sense  of  most  glorious  freedom,  a  vastly  wide 
plain,  over  which  everywhere  the  blessed  sunshine 
blazed  full  and  strong.  As  we  stood  together  in  the 
mouth  of  the  cave  for  a  moment  in  silence  —  for  no 
words  seemed  strong  enough  to  express  the  bursting 
gladness  that  was  in  our  hearts — two  short  blasts  of  a 
whistle,  wafted  upward  on  the  light  breeze  that  was 
blowing  towards  us  from  the  plain,  sounded  very  faint 
ly  but  clearly  in  our  ears.  Young  started  as  he  heard 
this  sound,  and  as  he  turned  towards  me  he  held  out 
his  hand  and  said,  in  a  voice  that  was  husky  and  trem 
ulous,  "  Professor,  that's  a  locomotive  whistle,  an'  th' 

d n  fool  is — is  whistlin'  'down  brakes'!"     And  in 

these  curiously  chosen,  yet  not  unmeaning  words,  did 
we  celebrate  our  deliverance. 


426  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

When  we  returned  to  Rayburn  —  and  as  we  now 
knew  the  way,  and  as  almost  the  whole  of  it  was  down 
hill,  our  return  was  accomplished  rapidly — some  of  the 
joyous  strength  that  we  had  gained  seemed  to  be  im 
parted  to  him.  He  opened  his  eyes  as  we  stooped  over 
him,  and  there  seemed  to  be  more  life  in  them  than 
there  had  been  through  all  that  day. 

" Rouse  up,  old  man !"  Young  cried  cheerily.  "We've 
struck  th'  trail  out  o'  this  cussed  hole  at  last,  an'  we're 
goin'  t'  hike  you  right  along  t'  Avhere  you'll  get  some  of 
God's  sunshine  again,  an'  some  air  that's  fit  for  a  white 
man  t'  breathe ;"  which  words  brought  still  more  light 
into  Rayburn's  eyes,  and  a  little  color  came  into  his 
pale  cheeks  as  we  told  him  of  the  open  way  that  we 
had  found  to  light  and  life. 

"Where's  the  Padre?" he  asked,  as  we  together  raised 
the  stretcher,  while  Pablo,  holding  the  lantern  and  lead 
ing  El  Sabio,  went  on  ahead  of  us.  Fortunately  Ray- 
burn  could  not  see  Young's  face  as  he  answered:  "  Th' 
Padre's  —  well,  th'  Padre's  just  gone  on  up  th'  line. 
You've  got  t'  hold  your  jaw,  Rayburn.  You  ain't  fit 
t'  talk;  an' while  we're  packin'  you  along  we  can't  talk 
either.  Come  on,  Professor;  and  you,  Pablo,"  he  add 
ed,  in  his  jerky  Spanish.  "  Be  careful  with  that  lamp 
or  Pll  break  the  head  of  you !" 

Although  a  good  third  of  his  flesh  had  wasted  away, 
Rayburn  would  have  been  a  heavy  load  for  us  to  carry 
over  level  ground,  even  had  we  been  hale  and  strong. 
Worn  as  we  then  were  by  our  prison -life,  we  found 
carrying  him  up  that  long  steep  path  in  the  heart  of 
the  mountain  a  weary  work  that  only  the  hope  and 


THROUGH    DARKNESS   TO    LIGHT.  427 

joy  that  strengthened  us  enabled  us  to  accomplish.  As 
it  was,  we  went  so  slowly,  and  made  so  many  halts  for 
rest,  that  the  sun  had  sunk  almost  to  the  level  of  the 
distant  mountains,  wherewith  that  great  plain  was  bor 
dered  to  the  westward,  when  at  last  our  toilsome  jour 
ney  was  at  an  end.  But  we  thought  nothing  of  the 
heaviness  of  our  labor  as  we  saw  the  glad  look  that 
came  into  his  face  when  he  gazed  out  over  that  broad 
expanse  of  sunlit  landscape,  and  snuffed  eagerly  the 
sweet  fresh  air,  and  so  felt  his  soul  grow  light  within 
him  as  he  realized  that  he  once  more  was  safe  and 
free. 

In  the  mouth  of  the  cave — within  its  shelter,  yet 
where  he  could  see  out  freely,  and  so  have  constantly 
in  his  mind  the  comforting  thought  of  his  deliverance 
— we  made  a  bed  for  him  of  soft  pine-branches,  which 
some  near-by  trees  gave  us ;  and  we  took  care  that  this 
couch  should  be  so  thick  and  so  evenly  laid  that  he 
would  lie  easily  upon  it ;  for  we  knew  that  many  days, 
perhaps  even  weeks,  must  pass  before  we  could  venture 
to  put  so  heavy  a  strain  upon  his  strength  as  would 
come  when  we  carried  him  down  that  rough  mountain 
side,  and  so  began  our  journey  towards  home. 

Fortunately,  a  little  spring  came  out  from  the  rock, 
clear  and  cool,  just  inside  the  cave ;  and  game  was 
so  abundant  on  that  mountain-side  that  Young  came 
back  presently  from  a  foraging  expedition  with  half  a 
dozen  codornices,  that  he  had  come  so  close  to  as  to 
shoot  with  his  revolver,  and  a  jack-rabbit  that  he  act 
ually  had  caught  with  his  hands  as  it  jumped  up  al 
most  beneath  his  feet ;  which  excellent  fare  made  a 


428  THE    AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

most  satisfying  supper  for  all  of  us ;  and  eating  it  so 
added  to  Rayburn's  strength — as  we  could  tell  by  the 
fuller  tones  of  his  voice,  and  by  his  being  able  to  move 
a  little  on  his  bed  without  our  helping  him — as  to 
rouse  in  us  a  warm  hope  that  the  death  that  seemed  so 
near  to  him  might  yet  be  thrust  away.  Our  chief  con 
cern,  lest  the  shock  that  would  come  to  him  of  knowing 
it  should  fairly  kill  him,  was  to  hide  from  him  for  the 
present  the  knowledge  that  Fray  Antonio  was  dead ; 
and  to  compass  this  end  we  plumply  told  him  the  flat- 
footed  lie  that  the  monk  had  gone  on  in  search  of  some 
town  whence  he  might  bring  back  horses  and  supplies ; 
and  so,  for  a  time,  we  laid  at  rest  his  doubts. 

In  his  own  original  way,  also,  Young  tried  to  put 
heart  into  him.     "You  see,  old  man,"  he  said,  "you've 

just  got  t'  pull  through.     Think  how  d d  ashamed 

o'  yourself  you'd  feel  after  you  was  dead  when  you 
had  t'  tell  all  th'  folks  in  heaven  that  you  was  killed  by 
no  thin'  better'n  a  mis'rable  chump  of  an  Injun  !  That 
was  what  bothered  poor  old  Steve  Hollis  when  he  was 
handin'  in  his  checks — 't  least  it  was  th'  same  gener 
al  sort  of  idea.  I  guess  you  never  knew  Steve,  did 
you,  Rayburn  ?  He  was  an  old  railroader — had  been 
a-workin'  on  th'  Old  Colony  one  way  and  another  for 
more'n  twenty  years.  When  I  knowed  him  he  used  t' 
run  th'  steamboat  express  from  Boston  t'  Fall  River 
— their  boss  train  on  that  blasted  old  road.  Steve 
owned  a  house  clost  t'  th'  line  just  a  little  way  out  o? 
Braintree  ;  an'  when  't  was  his  day  off  he'd  mostly  slide 
down  from  Fall  River  on  No.  2,  an'  walk  out  home 
from  Braintree  along  th'  track.  Nobody  ever  know'd 


THROUGH    DARKNESS   TO   LIGHT.  429 

just  how  't  happened — Steve  was  th'  soberest  man  I 
ever  knowed  ;  never  drunk  a  drop  o'  nothin' — but  one 
day,  as  he  was  walkin'  out  home,  No.  15,  that  was  th' 
slow  freight  from  Boston  t1  Newport,  ketched  him  an* 
got  in  its  work  on  him — an'  that  was  th'  end  o'  Steve. 
It  didn't  kill  him  right  smack  off,  an'  I  went  down  t' 
see  him ;  for  I  did  think  th'  world  of  old  Steve.  He 
was  a-layin'  in  his  bed,  an'  I  could  see  that  he  was 
a-most  gone  when  I  got  there ;  but  he  chippered  up  a 
little  for  a  minute  as  I  shook  hands  with  him  and  ast 
him  how  he  was.  He  said  he  was  poorly  ;  an'  then  he 
kep'  quiet  for  a  while.  Then  he  kind  o'  ketched  his 
breath  an'  seemed  t'  want  t'  say  somethin'.  So  I  bent 
over  him,  an'  he  said,  in  a  kind  of  a  whisperin'  groan  : 
*  Jus'  think  of  it,  Seth,  what  did  it  was  th'  slow  freight ! 
That's  what  cuts  me ;  that's  what  cuts  me  the  worst 
kind.  I  wouldn't  a-minded  if  't  had  been  th'  express — 
them  things  will  happen,  an'  they've  got  t'  come.  But 
here  I've  been  a-railroadin'  for  more'n  twenty  year, 

an'  t'  think  o'  me  bein'  busted  by  that  d n   slow 

freight !'  An'  then  he  turned  over,  an'  give  a  sort  of 
a  grunt,  an'  died." 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  myself  should  have  selected  this 
particular  story  to  tell  to  Rayburn  just  then  ;  but  the 
moral  that  it  contained  unquestionably  was  a  sound 
one,  and,  in  a  way,  was  calculated  to  impress  upon  him 
strongly  the  conviction  that  his  duty  was  to  get  well. 


430  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 


XXXVIII. 

KING  CHALTZANTZIN'S  TREASUKE. 

WHETHER  or  not  Young's  story  had  this  good  effect 
upon  Rayburn,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  he  slept  well  that  night  —  his  first  good 
night's  sleep  for  many  weeks — and  that  when  morning 
came  he  was  so  much  stronger  and  brighter  as  to  fill 
us  with  a  still  more  earnest  hope  that  he  was  well  start 
ed  on  the  way  to  recovery. 

Young  quickly  brought  in  some  birds  for  our  break 
fast,  and  when  the  meal  was  finished  he  took  me  aside  and 
said  :  "  Now,  Professor,  lets  me  an'  you  go  back  t'  that 
hole  an'  bring  away  all  there  is  there  that's  worth  car- 
ryin'.  It's  not  much,  I  guess,  but  it's  better'n  nothin'. 
It  just  makes  me  sick  t'  think  of  all  that  gold,  that 
ud  'a'  made  our  everlastin'  fortunes  if  we'd  only  been 
able  t'  pack  it  along  with  us.  There  was  millions  an' 
millions  there,  I  s'pose — an'  it  '11  never  do  us  any  more 
good  than  if  we'd  never  seen  it  at  all !"  and  as  Young 
spoke  he  heaved  a  very  melancholy  sigh.  "But  we 
may  as  well  grab  all  we  can  get,"  he  went  on,  more 
cheerfully.  "There  was  a  lot  o'  gold  boxes  an'  jugs 
in  th'  room  where  Mullins  is ;  an'  maybe  there's  some- 
thin'  that's  worth  havin'  in  all  them  little  pots.  Let's 
go  back  an'  see,  anyway.  Rayburn's  lookin'  almost  all 
right  this  mornin'  ;  and  Pablo's  got  his  wits  back  now, 
an'  can  give  him  anything  he  wants," 


431 

For  my  own  part  I  did  not  desire,  because  of  their 
money  value,  any  of  the  articles  which  I  had  seen  in 
the  treasure-chamber  ;  but  I  did  very  earnestly  long 
to  possess  myself  of  that  most  curious  arbalest,  and  I 
desired  also  to  examine  carefully — because  of  the  dis 
coveries  of  great  archaeological  value  which  I  hoped  to 
make — the  contents  of  the  gold  boxes  and  vases  and 
earthen  jars.  Therefore,  Rayburn  having  expressed 
his  entire  willingness  that  we  should  leave  him,  I 
assented  readily  to  Young's  proposition  ;  whereupon 
Young  lighted  the  lantern  and  we  set  off. 

As  we  entered  again  the  treasure  -  chamber  there 
was  within  me  a  strong  feeling  of  awe.  During  our 
hurried  passage  through  it,  the  imminent  danger  in 
which  we  were,  and  then  the  excitement  of  the  scene 
in  the  oratory,  and  then  the  joyfulness  of  our  finding  a 
way  of  escape,  had  prevented  me  from  realizing  how 
wonderful  was  the  deposit  that  this  room  contained;  a 
deposit  that  certainly  had  lain  there  for  not  less  than  a 
thousand  years,  and  that  unquestionably  was  the  most 
perfect  surviving  trace  of  the  most  intelligent  and 
most  interesting  people  that  in  prehistoric  times  dwelt 
upon  this  continent.  Which  strange  reflections,  now 
that  my  mind  was  free  to  entertain  them  and  to  dwell 
upon  them,  aroused  within  me  a  feeling  of  such  rev 
erent  wonder  that  I  hesitated  for  some  moments  before 
I  could  bring  myself  to  disturb  what  thus  through  so 
long  a  sweep  of  ages  had  remained  sacredly  inviolate. 

But  reverence,  as  he  himself  would  have  said,  was 
not  Young's  strongest  hold;  in  truth,  I  am  persuaded 
that  there  was  not  an  atom  of  it  in  his  entire  composi- 


432  THE   AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

tion ;  and  as  I  stood  hesitating  beside  the  statue  of 
Chac-Mool  he  briskly  called  to  me:  "  Come  right  along, 
Professor ;  there  ain't  nobody  t'  stop  us  now.  We've 
got  th'  drop,  you  might  say,  on  th'  whole  outfit,  an'  we 
can  do  just  as  we  blame  please.  This  looks  like  a  bad 
ly  kept  drug  store,  don't  it  ?"  he  went  on,  "  with  all 
these  pots  an'  boxes  an'  little  jars  stuck  round  on  thj 
shelves.  Well,  here  goes  t'  see  what's  in  'em :  not  much 
o'  nothin',  I  guess;  but  then  it  might  be  di'monds,  an' 
that  just  would  be  gay!" 

As  Young  spoke  he  thrust  his  hand  into  one  of  the 
earthen  jars,  and  thereby  set  flying  such  a  cloud  of 
dust  that  for  some  seconds  his  violent  sneezing  pre 
vented  him  from  examining  the  small  object  that  he 
had  brought  forth  from  the  jar  and  held  in  his  hand ; 
and  when  he  did  examine  this  object  an  expression  of 
intense  disgust  appeared  upon  his  face,  and  he  exclaim 
ed,  indignantly,  "  Why,  it's  nothin'  but  a  fool  arrow 
head!" 

I  could  not  but  laugh  at  Young  as  I  took  the  arrow 
head  from  him.  For  my  purposes,  this  beautifully 
carved  piece  of  obsidian  was  far  more  precious  than  a 
diamond  would  have  been ;  and  I  tried — quite  unsuc 
cessfully,  however — to  arouse  his  interest  in  this  proof 
of  the  high  degree  of  skill  to  which  the  prehistoric 
races  of  America  had  attained  in  the  manipulation  of 
an  exceedingly  hard  yet  delicate  variety  of  stone ;  and 
I  added  that  not  less  interesting  was  the  proof  thus  af 
forded  us  of  the  great  value  which  these  same  races 
attached  to  implements  of  war. 

"  Oh,  come  off  with  your  prehistoric  races,  Professor !" 


433 

he  growled.  "A  whole  car-load  o'  rubbish  like  this 
wouldn't  be  worth  a  nickel  t'  anybody  but  a  scientific 
crank  like  you.  If  this  is  th'  sort  o'  stuff  that  that  old 
king  o'  yours  thought  was  worth  hidin',  I  guess  he 
must  V  been  off  his  head.  But  that  pot  may  'a'  got  in 
by  mistake.  Before  I  get  too  much  down  on  him  I'll 
give  him  another  show."  With  which  words,  but  cau 
tiously,  that  the  dust  might  not  be  disturbed,  he  thrust 
his  hand  into  another  jar,  and  was  mightily  resentful 
upon  finding  that  what  he  brought  forth  from  it  was 
only  the  head  of  a  lance.  However,  the  determination 
to  give  King  Chaltzantzin  a  chance  to  prove  his  sanity, 
together  with  the  hope  that  something  of  real  value 
might  be  found,  led  him  to  continue  his  investigations, 
and  he  presently  had  examined  all  the  jars  ranged  on 
two  sides  of  the  room ;  and  his  grumbling  curses  in 
creased  constantly  in  vigor  as  jar  after  jar  yielded  only 
arrow-heads,  and  lance-heads,  and  chisel-shaped  pieces 
of  obsidian,  that  I  perceived  must  have  been  intended 
for  the  making  of  the  cutting  edges  of  the  maccahnitl, 
or  Aztec  sword ;  but,  for  my  part,  all  of  these  things 
filled  me  with  the  liveliest  pleasure  as  I  took  them  from 
Young  and  attentively  examined  them;  for  the  delicate 
and  perfect  workmanship  that  they  exhibited  showed 
them  to  have  been  made  by  a  people  that  had  reached 
the  highest  development  of  the  Stone  Age. 

"This  business  is  gettin'  worse,  instead  o'  better," 
Young  said,  gloomily,  as  he  began  his  search  an  the 
third  side  of  the  room  by  opening  one  of  the  small 
gold  boxes.  "  The  stuff  in  here  is  nothin'  but  a  mean 
sort  o'  wrappin'-paper  with  pictures  on  it — like  that  old 
28 


434  THE    AZTEC   TREASUKE-HOUSE, 

map  o'  yours  that  got  us  started  on  this  tomfoolin' 
treasure-hunt.  I  s'pose  you^U  just  have  a  fit  over  it !" 
And  as  I  uttered  an  eager  cry  of  delight,  and  bent  over 
this  casket  that  contained  such  inestimable  riches,  he 
gave  a  sniff  of  contempt,  and  added  :  "  There,  I  thought 
so.  You  think  more  o'  that  rotten  old  stuff  than  you 
would  o'  gold  dollars.  Well,  there's  no  accountin'  for 
tastes,  and  it  takes  all  sorts  o'  people  t'  make  th' 
world."  But  I  paid  no  attention  to  him  as  I  rapidly 
glanced  over  these  priceless  manuscripts  ;  and  then  had 
my  cup  of  happiness  filled  absolutely  to  overflowing 
by  the  glad  discovery  that  in  every  one  of  the  gold 
boxes,  of  which  there  were  nine  in  all,  treasures  of  a 
like  sort  were  stored.  In  the  supplemental  volume  (in 
elephant  folio)  to  my  Pre-Columbian  Conditions  on  the 
Continent  of  North  America  these  wonderful  manu 
scripts  are  reproduced  in  fac-simile  ;  and  when  that 
great  work  is  published  the  surpassing  value  of  my 
discovery  will  be  at  once  recognized.  It  is  sufficient 
to  say  here  that  these  several  codices  together  con 
stituted  a  complete  hieratic  chronicle  of  the  Aztec 
tribes ;  and  that  (herein  lying  the  extraordinary  value 
of  the  collection)  the  uncertain  picture-writing  was  ac 
companied  by  a  translation  into  the  ideographic  char 
acters  of  later  times,  the  meaning  of  which  I  was  er 
abled,  thanks  to  the  instruction  that  my  friend  the 
guardian  of  the  archives  had  given  me,  fully  to  under 
stand.  In  short,  my  discovery  precisely  paralleled  that 
of  Boussard  ;  for  even  as  the  Rosetta  Stone  gave  the 
key  to  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  so  did  this  translitera 
tion  into  intelligible  characters  make  all  Aztec  picture- 


KING  CHALTZANTZIN'S  TREASURE.  435 

writing  plain.  As  the  full  significance  of  my  discovery 
burst  upon  me,  my  joy  and  the  excitement  of  my 
splendid  triumph  so  moved  me  that  my  hands  trembled 
as  I  held  these  precious  manuscripts,  and  I  no  longer 
could  see  clearly  the  painted  characters  because  of  the 
tears  of  happiness  which  filled  my  eyes. 

Young,  however,  whose  longing  was  only  for  mate 
rial  treasure,  continued  his  investigations  in  anything 
but  a  thankful  mood.  "There  ain't  no  doubt  of  it 
now"  he  said  presently  in  a  most  melancholy  tone. 
"That  old  king  o'  yours  must  'a'  been  just  as  crazy  as 
a  loon.  Look  here  :  this  thing  ain't  even  a  fool  arrow 
head  ;  it's  nothin'  but  a  bit  o'  green  glass !  I  reckon 
it's  part  o'  th'  bottom  of  a  porter-bottle.  Nice  sort  o' 
stuff  this  is  t'  call  treasure,  an'  t'  take  such  an  all-fired 
lot  o'  trouble  t'  hide  away !  Why,  I  should  jedge  that 
that  king  must  V  spent  most  of  his  time  settin'  up 
nights  a-puzzlin'  over  plans  for  makin'  sure  that  he  was 

th'  very  d dest  biggest  fool  that  ever  lived ! — an' 

that's  just  what  he  was,  for  sure  !  It's  tough,  gettin' 
left  this  way ;  but  it  wouldn't  begin  t'  be  as  tough  as 
't  is  if  't  wasn't  for  all  them  car-loads  an'  car-loads  o' 
gold  right  clost  by  us  here  that  we  might  'a'  got  away 
with  as  easy  as  rollin'  off  a  log  if  we'd  only  ketched  on 
to  this  back-door  racket  in  time.  An'  see  here,  Pro 
fessor,"  he  went  on  in  a  very  earnest  tone,  "  I  don't  be 
lieve  there's  anybody  in  there  now;  why  shouldn't  we 
just  chance  things  a  little  an'  go  back  an'  get  some  of  it  ? 
We've  got  our  guns  ;  an'  even  if  we  do  strike  a  crowd 
too  big  for  us  t'  tackle,  an'  have  t'  run  for  it,  we  won't 
be  no  worse  off  'an  we  are  now.  Come,  let's  try  it  on  !" 


436  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

While  Young  spoke  I  had  been  looking  closely  at 
the  object  that  so  violently  had  excited  his  indigna 
tion,  and  instead  of  replying  to  him  I  asked,  "  Are 
there  any  more  pieces  of  that  porter-bottle  in  the  jar  ?" 

"  It's  full  of  'em,"  he  answered  with  a  contemptuous 
brevity. 

"And  the  next?" 

"That's  full  of  'em  too.  All  th'  jars  on  this  side  o' 
th'  room  are  full  of  'em,"  he  added,  as  he  rapidly  thrust 
his  hand  into  one  after  another — and  so  set  the  dust 
to  flying  that  we  both  fell  to  sneezing  as  though  we 
would  sneeze  our  heads  off.  "  Oh  come  along,  Profess 
or:  what's  th'  use  o'  foolin'  over  this  rubbish;  let's  go 
for  th'  stuff  that's  good  for  its  weight  in  spot  cash 
every  time  !" 

"Wait  till  we  see  what  is  in  these  gold  vases  over 
here,"  I  answered,  turning  as  I  spoke  to  the  side  of 
the  room  that  as  yet  we  had  not  examined. 

"  What's  th'  good  ?"  he  asked,  sulkily.  But  he  lifted 
down  one  of  the  vases,  and  with  his  thumb  and  fin 
ger  brought  forth  from  it  a  little  round  black  ball. 
"  Worse  an'  worse,"  he  said,  as  he  handed  the  ball  to 
me.  "  We've  got  down  t'  what  looks  like  lumps  o' 
shoemaker's  wax  now.  That's  about  th'  sickest  look- 
in'  thing  t'  call  itself  treasure  I  ever  did  see !" 

It  did  not  seem  to  me  probable  that  the  little  ball 
was  shoemaker's  wax ;  but  in  order  to  settle  this  point 
experimentally  I  cut  into  it  with  my  penknife.  Under 
the  gummy  exterior  I  found  a  layer  of  cotton-wool, 
and  enclosed  in  this  a  hard  substance  about  the  size  of 
a  hazel-nut.  While  I  was  making  this  examination, 


437 

Young  investigated  into  the  contents  of  the  remaining 
vases — which  themselves  were  exceedingly  interesting, 
being  made  of  hammered  gold  and  most  curiously  en 
graved. 

"They're  no  good,"  he  said,  "except  I  s'pose  th' 
mugs  must  be  worth  somethin'.  Shoemaker's  wax  in 
'em  all !  It's  worse  'an  th'  porter-bottles — for  what's 
th'  use  o'  shoemaker's  wax  t'  folks  who  don't  rightly 
know  what  a  shoe  is  ?  Come  along,  I  say,  Professor, 
an*  let's  have  a  whack  at  them  piles  o'  gold.  If  we 
don't  tackle  'em  we  might  just  as  well  never  have 
come  on  this  treasure-hunt  at  all.  Some  o'  the  stuff  in 
here's  worth  havin' — th'  gold  mugs  an'  boxes,  an'  that 
old  gold  bow-gun  that  you're  so  busted  about — but 
what  does  th'  whole  of  it  amount  to,  anyway,  when 
you  come  t'  divide  it  up  among  four  men  an'  a  jack 
ass  ?  I  guess  even  th'  jackass  ud  turn  up  his  nose  at  it  if 
he  knowed  what  a  lot  more  there  was  that  was  t'  be 
had  for  just  grabbin'  it  an'  packin'  it  along.  It's  some- 
thin',  I  s'pose,  that  we've  pulled  through  without  losin' 
our  hair ;  but  we  have  pulled  through  all  right,  an' 
now  we  want  t'  make  this  business  pay;  an'  unless  we 
go  for  that  gold  this  business  won't  'a'  paid  worth  a 
cuss — an'  instead  o'  comin'  out  on  top  we'll  be  left  th' 
very  worst  kind!" 

As  Young  was  delivered  of  this  dismal  remonstrance 
I  handed  him  the  small  object  that  I  had  extracted 
from  the  pitch-coated  ball.  "Before  you  make  up 
your  mind  that  we  are  likely  to  be  '  left,'  as  you  term 
it,  suppose  you  look  at  this,"  I  said. 

He  held  out  his  hand  carelessly;  but  as  he  saw  what 


438  THE   AZTEC    TREASURE-HOUSE. 

I  had  placed  in  it  his  expression  suddenly  changed, 
and  he  burst  forth  excitedly:  "Great  Scott!  where 
did  this  come  from  ?  Why — why,  Professor,  it  looks 
like  it  was  a  pearl ;  but  if  't  truly  is  one  it's  about  th' 
bustin'est  biggest  one  that  Godamighty  ever  made  ! 
Do  you  truly  size  it  up  for  a  pearl  yourself  ?" 

"Most  assuredly,"  I  answered.  "And  it  is  a  fair 
assumption,  I  think,  that  there  is  a  pearl  in  each  one 
of  all  these  little  pitch-covered  balls.  As  to  what  you 
called  bits  of  green  glass,  they  are  neither  more  nor 
less  than  extraordinarily  fine  emeralds ;  I  should  say 
that  the  smallest  of  them  must  be  worth  more  dollars 
than  you  could  carry  at  a  single  load.  Of  course,  all 
the  emeralds  and  pearls  together  are  not  worth  a  single 
one  of  these  manuscripts  " — here  Young  gave  a  scep 
tical  grunt — "but  in  the  way  of  vulgar  material  riches 
I  am  confident  that  the  value  of  what  is  in  these  jars 
is  greater  than  that  of  all  the  gold  together  that  we 
saw  in  the  Valley  of  Aztlan.  Without  a  shadow  of 
doubt,  you  and  I  at  this  moment  are  standing  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  enormous  treasure  that  ever  has  been 
brought  together  since  the  world  was  made!" 

"  Honest  Injun,  Professor?" 

"  Certainly,"  I  answered ;  "  and  if  this  is  your  no 
tion  of  getting  *  left'  on  a  treasure-hunt,"  I  continued, 
"  it  assuredly  is  not  mine." 

"  Left  ?"  Young  repeated  after  me,  while  his  eyes 
ranged  exultantly  over  the  rows  of  jars  in  which  this 
vast  wealth  was  contained.  "Well,  I  should  smile!  I 
take  it  all  back  about  that  old  king  bein'  crazy.  He 
was  just  as  level-headed  as  George  Washington  an' 


EPILOGUE.  439 

Dan'l  Webster  rolled  into  one.  These  pots  full  of 
arrow-heads  an'  such  stuff  was  only  one  of  his  little 
jokes,  showin'  that  he  must  'a'  been  a  good-natured, 
comical  old  cuss,  th'  kind  I  always  did  like,  anyway. 
Left?  Not  much  we  ain't  left!  We've  just  everlast- 
in'ly  got  there  with  all  four  feet  to  onct !  Professor, 
shake !" 


EPILOGUE. 

THROUGHOUT  my  whole  life  I  have  been  saddened, 
as  each  well-defined  section  of  it  has  come  to  an  end, 
by  the  thought  that  during  the  period  that  has  then 
slipped  away  from  me  forever  I  have  wasted  more 
opportunities  than  I  have  improved.  As  I  write  these 
final  lines,  therefore,  I  feel  a  sorrowful  regret,  which, 
in  a  way,  is  akin  to  the  regret  that  weighed  upon  me 
when  Young  and  I,  having  carried  into  the  cave  the 
contents  of  the  treasure  -  chamber,  removed  the  prop 
wherewith  was  upheld  the  swinging  statue,  and  so  suf 
fered  to  fall  into  place  again  that  ponderous  mass  of 
stone.  From  below,  where  we  were,  lifting  it  was  im 
possible  ;  and  by  heaping  fragments  of  rock  under  the 
forward  end  of  it  we  presently  made  it  equally  im 
movable  from  above.  Thus  for  outlet  or  for  inlet  that 
way  was  irrevocably  barred;  and  as  I  write  now  I  know 
that  I  am  not  less  irrevocably  severing  myself  from 
one  portion  of  my  past.  For,  says  the  Persian  poet, 
"A  finished  book  is  a  sealed  casket.  To  it  nothing  can 
be  added.  From  it  nothing  can  be  taken  away.  There- 


440  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

fore  should  we  pray  to  Allah  that  its  contents  may  be 
good." 

The  record  that  I  am  now  ending  was  begun  partly 
that  I  might  find  in  the  writing  of  it  relief  from  the 
more  serious  work  in  which  I  have  been  engaged,  and 
partly  because  I  perceived  that  I  could  properly  in 
clude  in  a  personal  narrative  many  matters  which  were 
too  trivial  or  too  entirely  personal  to  be  incorporated 
into  my  extended  scientific  treatise,  but  which,  I  was 
persuaded,  were  of  a  sufficient  interest  to  be  preserved- 
But  I  certainly  should  not  have  finished  this  history  of 
our  adventures  nearly  so  expeditiously  had  not  Ray- 
burn  and  Young  taken  a  very  lively  interest  in  it,  and 
pressed  me  constantly  to  bring  it  to  an  end. 

"You  see,  Professor,"  said  Young,  "I  don't  want  t' 
say  anything  against  that  big  book  you're  writin'.  I 
don't  doubt  that  in  its  way  it  '11  be  a  daisy;  but  you 
know  yourself  there  won't  be  more'n  about  three 
cranks  in  th'  whole  o'  God's  universe  who'll  ever  read 
more'n  about  ten  lines  of  it ;  an'  that's  why  I  want 
you  t'  rush  ahead  with  th'  little  book — that  stands 
some  chance  o'  bein'  read  outside  o'  lunatic  asylums — 
so's  folks  '11  know  what  a  powerful  queer  time  we've 
had.  Don't  be  too  cussed  particular  t'  say  just  where 
that  valley  is — for,  while  it's  not  likely,  we  might  want 
t'  take  a  fightin'  crowd  along  an'  dynamite  our  way 
back  there  some  day  after  more  cash  ;  but,  exceptin' 
that,  just  give  'em  th'  cold  facts.  I  reckon  they'll 
make  some  folks  open  their  eyes." 

From  time  to  time,  as  my  narrative  has  grown  be 
neath  my  hand,  I  have  read  aloud  to  my  fellow-advent- 


EPILOGUE.  441 

urers  what  I  have  written,  and  have  received  from 
them  suggestions  in  accordance  with  which  it  has  been 
corrected  or  amended  in  its  several  parts ;  and  it  is 
but  just  to  add,  in  this  connection,  that  in  every  case 
where  I  have  referred  (as  it  seems  to  me  now  in  words 
not  nearly  strong  enough)  to  the  loyalty  to  our  com 
mon  interests,  and  to  the  splendid  bravery  which  Ray- 
burn  and  Young  constantly  exhibited  throughout  that 
trying  time,  I  have  been  compelled  to  exert  the  whole 
of  my  authority  over  them  in  order  to  win  their  grum 
bling  permission  that  my  words  might  stand.  Even 
Pablo — for  the  love  that  there  was  between  this  boy 
and  me  was  far  too  strong  to  permit  me  to  leave  him 
behind  in  Mexico,  and  we  are  like  to  live  together  as 
long  as  we  live  at  all — has  taken  issue  with  me  con 
cerning  what  I  have  written  of  his  steadfast  faithful 
ness  and  courage;  and  this  on  the  ground  that  he  could 
not  possibly  be  anything  but  faithful  to  those  whom 
he  loved,  and  that  it  is  only  natural  for  a  man  to  fight 
for  his  own  life  and  for  the  lives  of  his  friends.  In 
thus  applying  the  word  hombre  to  himself  Pablo  spoke 
a  little  doubtfully,  as  though  he  feared  that  I  might 
question  his  right  to  it ;  yet  did  he  roll  it  so  relishing- 
ly  under  his  tongue,  and  so  well  had  he  proved  his 
manliness,  that  I  suffered  it  to  pass. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  only  member  of  our  party  who 
has  accepted  my  just  tribute  of  praise  with  entire  equa 
nimity  has  been  El  Sabio.  It  was  Pablo's  notion,  of 
course,  that  El  Sabio  should  hear  what  I  had  written 
about  him.  "  Not  the  whole  of  it,  you  know,  seiior," 
the  boy  said,  earnestly;  "for  some  of  what  you  have 


442  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

written  —  while  I  know  that  it  is  true,  and  therefore 
must  be  told — would  hurt  his  tender  heart.  It  was 
not  his  fault — the  angel! — that  he  gave  us  so  much 
trouble  when  we  swung  him  across  the  canon;  and  to 
lell  him  that  there  was  even  a  thought  of  eating  him, 
while  we  were  in  that  dreadful  valley  where  every  one 
was  dead,  assuredly  would  turn  him  gray  before  his 
time.  No ;  we  will  hide  all  such  unpleasant  parts  of 
the  book  from  him;  but  we  will  read  to  him  what  you 
have  said  concerning  his  beauty  and  his  wisdom — and, 
surely,  you  might  have  said  of  these  a  great  deal  more; 
and  also  about  his  gallant  fight  with  the  priests,  when, 
all  alone,  he  slew  so  many  of  them  with  his  heels.  And 
it  would  have  been  fairer  to  El  Sabio,  senor,"  Pablo 
added,  a  little  reproachfully,  as  we  walked  out  togeth 
er  to  the  paddock  in  which  the  ass,  grown  to  be  very 
fat,  was  living  a  life  of  most  royal  ease,  "  had  you  told 
in  the  book  how  well  he  served  us  in  bringing  all  the 
treasure,  in  many  weary  journeys,  out  through  that 
dismal  cave ;  and  also  how  carefully  he  carried  the 
Senor  Rayburn  down  that  steep  mountain-side,  and  so 
to  the  little  town  beside  the  railway,  and  never  hurt 
his  wound." 

However,  El  Sabio  did  not  seem  to  notice  these  omis 
sions  from  my  narrative,  though  he  certainly  did  ex 
hibit  a  most  curious  air  of  interest  and  understanding 
as  I  read  to  him  those  laudatory  portions  of  it  which 
Pablo  desired  that  he  should  hear.  According  to  Pab 
lo's  understanding  of  his  language,  he  even  thanked 
me  for  speaking  well  of  him  ;  for  when  the  reading 
was  ended  he  thrust  his  nose  far  forward,  laid  his  long 


EPILOGUE.  443 

ears  back  upon  his  neck,  planted  his  little  legs  firmly, 
and  as  he  erected  in  triumph  his  scrag  of  a  tail,  he  ut 
tered  a  most  thunderous  bray.  "And  now,  Wise  One," 
Pablo  said,  tenderly,  as  he  infolded  the  head  of  the  ass 
in  his  arms  and  hugged  it  to  his  breast,  "thou  knowest 
that  we  not  only  love  thee  for  thy  goodness  and  thy 
wisdom,  but  that  we  also  honor  thee  for  thy  noble 
deeds." 

Rayburn's  fancy  was  mightily  tickled  by  this  per 
formance  in  which  El  Sabio  and  Pablo  and  I  had  en 
gaged —  though  Young  evidently  thought  it  but  an 
other  proof  of  the  addled  state  of  my  brains — when  I 
told  about  it  that  evening  as  we  all  sat  smoking  com 
fortably  in  my  library  before  the  open  fire.  This  was 
to  be  our  last  meeting  for  some  time  to  come;  for  Ray- 
burn  was  to  start  the  next  day  for  Idaho  to  look  after 
some  mining  matters,  and  Young  suddenly  had  decided 
that  he  would  accompany  him.  In  truth,  Young  was 
rather  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with  himself;  for 
his  plan  for  buying  the  Old  Colony  Railroad,  in  order 
to  be  in  a  position  to  discharge  its  superintendent,  had 
been  abandoned.  "  I'd  like  t'  do  it,  of  course,"  he  said. 
"  Bouncin'  that  chump  th'  same  way  that  he  bounced 
me  would  do  me  a  lot  o'  good;  but  I've  made  up  my 
mind  it  wouldn't  be  th'  square  thing  t'  do,  considerin' 
that  if  he  hadn't  bounced  me  I'd  still  be  foolin'  round 
on  top  o'  freight-cars,  in  all  sorts  o'  weather,  handlin' 
brakes.  So  I've  let  up  on  him,  an'  he  can  stay.  What 
I  want  now  is  t'  do  some  good  with  this  all-fired  big 
pile  o'  money  that  I've  got.  That's  one  reason  why 
I'm  goin'  out  with  Rayburn  t'  Idaho.  Right  straight 


444  THE    AZTEC   TKEASUKE-HOUSE. 

along  from  here  t'  Boise  City  I  mean  t'  set  up  drinks 
for  every  railroader  I  meet.  That'll  be  doin'  good,  for 
sure." 

Rayburn  and  I  laughed  a  little  at  this  odd  method 
for  benefiting  humanity  that  Young  had  got  hold  of; 
and  then  Rayburn's  face  grew  grave  as  he  said:  "  Well, 
we're  doing  a  little  good,  I  suppose,  in  putting  that  old 
church  in  Morelia  in  good  shape.  I'm  glad  you  thought 
of  that,  Professor.  I  don't  suppose  that  anything  we 
could  have  done  would  have  pleased  the  Padre  more 
than  to  have  that  church,  that  he  loved  so  much,  made 
as  handsome  as  money  can  make  it  all  the  way  through." 

"  Yes,"  Young  added,  "  an'  I  guess  th'  Professor's 
head  was  level  in  havin'  all  th'  new  stuff  that  we've 
put  in  it  made  t'  look  like  't  was  about  two  hundred 
years  old.  I  did  kick  at  that  at  first,  I'll  allow.  What 
I  wanted  t'  do  was  t'  build  a  first-class  new  church, 
with  a  rattlin'  tall  steeple,  an'  steam  heat,  an'  electric 
lights,  an'  an  organ  big  enough  t'  bust  the  roof  off  ev 
ery  time  she  was  played.  But  th'  Padre  was  as  keen 
as  th'  Professor,  a'most,  for  old-fashioned  things  ;  an' 
so  I  guess  we've  done  that  job  just  about  as  he'd  'a' 
done  it  himself.  It  makes  me  feel  queer,  though,  put- 
tin*  up  money  on  a  Catholic  church  that  way ;  an' 
when  I  was  tellin'  an  old  aunt  o'  mine,  down  t'  Milton, 
about  it,  she  just  riz  up  an'  rared.  An'  she  didn't  feel 
a  bit  better  when  I  told  her  that  if  I  thought  it  ud 
please  th'  Padre  t'  have  me  do  it,  I'd  go  smack  off  t' 
Rome  an'  shake  hands  with  th'  Pope.  And  I  truly 
would  do  that  very  same  thing,"  Young  continued, 
earnestly,  while  his  voice  trembled  a  little,  "  for  this 


EPILOGUE.  445 

side  o'  heaven  I  never  expect  t'  meet  anybody  that's 
so  near  t'  bein'  a  first  -  class  angel  as  th'  Padre  was. 
An'  when  I  think  how  he  saved  our  miserable  lives  for 
us,  as  he  surely  did,  by  givnr  awav  his  own — that  was 
worth  more'n  all  of  ours  put  together,  an'  ten  times 
over — I  don't  care  a  continental  what  his  religious  pol 
itics  was  ;  an'  I'll  punch  th'  head  of  anybody  who  don't 
say  that  he  was  th'  pluckiest  an'  th'  best  man  that  ever 
lived !" 

Pablo  had  caught  the  word  Padre  in  Young's  talk, 
and  as  the  lad  looked  up  from  the  corner  in  which  he 
was  sitting,  I  saw  that  his  eyes  were  full  of  tears ;  Ray- 
burn's  eyes  also  had  an  odd  glistening  look  about  them 
as  he  turned  away  suddenly,  and  emptied  the  ashes 
from  his  pipe  into  the  fire  ;  and  I  know  that  I  could 
not  see  very  clearly  just  then,  as  very  tender,  yet  very 
poignant  memories  surged  suddenly  into  my  heart. 

And  when  the  others  left  me — as  they  did  presently, 
for  we  could  not  fall  again  into  commonplace  talk — I 
bade  Pablo  be  off  to  bed,  and  so  sat  there  for  a  while 
alone.  What  I  had  planned  to  do  that  night  was  to 
revise  an  address  that  I  was  shortly  to  deliver  before 
the  Archaeological  Institute ;  but  the  pen  that  I  had 
taken  into  my  hand  lay  idle  there,  while  my  thoughts 
went  backward  through  the  channels  of  the  past. 

In  that  still  season  of  darkness  I  seemed  to  live  again 
through  all  the  time  that  Fray  Antonio  and  I  had  been 
together — from  the  moment  when  I  first  caught  sight 
of  him,  as  he  knelt  before  the  crucifix  in  the  sacristy, 
to  my  last  sad  look  at  the  dead  body  whence  his  soul 
had  sped  back  again  to  God. 


446  THE    AZTEC   TREASURE-HOUSE. 

As  ray  thoughts  dwelt  upon  this  most  loving  and 
most  tender  companionship,  the  like  of  which  for  per- 
fectness  I  am  confident  was  never  known,  and  then 
upon  the  cruel  violence  that  brought  it  to  an  end,  so 
searching  a  pain  went  through  my  soul  that  I  knew 
that  either  it  must  cease  or  I  must  die  of  it  in  a  very 
little  while.  And  then  was  borne  in  upon  me  the 
strong  conviction  —  and  so  has  it  since  been  always, 
when  thus  my  thoughts  have  been  engaged — that  be 
cause  of  my  very  love  for  Fray  Antonio  must  I  rejoice 
that  he  had  died  so  savage  a  death ;  believing  confi 
dently  that  what  he  prayed  for  when  first  I  found  him 
in  the  Christian  church  of  San  Francisco  was,  in  truth, 
that  very  crown  of  martyrdom  that  God  granted  to 
him  when  at  last  I  lost  him  in  the  heathen  city  of 
Colhuacan.  And  with  the  pressing  in  upon  me  thus 
strangely  of  this  strange  thought,  it  seemed  as  though 
he  himself  said  again  to  me,  "  I  go  to  win  the  life, 
glorious  and  eternal,  into  which  neither  death  nor  sin 


THE   END. 


8 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY—TEL.  NO.  642-3405 
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LOAN  DCPT 

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,1 

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